Iran Expert Denies Reports of Mossad Recruiting Former President Ahmadinejad

Iran specialist Rani Amrani strongly refuted recent claims published by The New York Times that Israel's Mossad ran a covert operation involving former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Amrani stated in an interview that if such a collaboration were true, Ahmadinejad would have been executed long ago by Iranian authorities. He dismissed the reports as "Hollywood script" and "fake news," emphasizing that Ahmadinejad's hands are stained with the blood of many Iranians, making him unacceptable as a future leader in a theocratic regime that requires religious credentials.

The New York Times investigation alleged that Mossad sought to recruit Ahmadinejad as a strategic intelligence asset to eventually replace Iran's ruling clerical regime. The report detailed secret meetings in Budapest in 2024, disguised as climate conferences, where Mossad agents met with Ahmadinejad. It also claimed that former Mossad chief Dedi Barnea personally traveled to Hungary to meet him, and that Israel covertly funded some of Ahmadinejad's travel and living expenses abroad.

The operation reportedly escalated after an Israeli airstrike targeted Ahmadinejad's residence in Tehran on February 28, 2024. Following the attack, Mossad agents allegedly extracted him to a safe house inside Iran to isolate him from the Revolutionary Guards' control and promote him as an alternative leader. However, Ahmadinejad reportedly resisted the plan and later left the safe house under unclear circumstances.

Ahmadinejad remained out of public view for months until briefly appearing at the funeral of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Iranian officials later revealed parts of his contacts with Israel, leading to his detention under house arrest by the Revolutionary Guards' intelligence division. Amrani suggested that the reports serve political agendas aimed at undermining the Israeli government and stressed that the Iranian public would never accept a leader with ties to the current regime and a violent past.

The controversy highlights the complex and secretive nature of intelligence operations in the region and the challenges of verifying such sensitive claims amid ongoing geopolitical tensions.