Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is under house arrest by the intelligence branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) after Iranian authorities uncovered a significant number of his contacts with Israel, The New York Times reported on Monday, citing four senior Iranian officials.
According to a The New York Times investigation, Israel has conducted a secret operation for many years aimed at recruiting Ahmadinejad as an agent. At a later stage, the publication’s sources indicated that the possibility of reinstating him to power after the current regime’s overthrow was also considered.
Secret negotiations in Budapest
One of the most unusual phases of the operation, according to NYT, occurred in early 2024, when a high-ranking Hungarian government official asked Gergely Deli, rector of the Ludovika University of Public Service in Budapest, to invite Ahmadinejad to a climate change conference. Deli stated he was informed that the conference would actually serve as a cover for secret negotiations between Ahmadinejad and representatives of Israeli intelligence.
Despite concerns about potential damage to his own reputation and that of the university, Deli agreed to invite Ahmadinejad. He explained, “If you have two enemies, and if these enemies want to talk to each other, then it is best to do everything possible to make them talk.” Former U.S. officials told NYT that former Israeli intelligence chief David Barnea personally traveled to Budapest to meet with Ahmadinejad.
According to NYT, in the following years, Israel made several secret payments to Ali Akbar Javanfekr, Ahmadinejad’s spokesman, and Israeli agents met with him several more times before the start of Operation “Roaring Lion.”
In February, The New York Times reported that Ahmadinejad’s house was struck by an Israeli airstrike targeting his guards and an armored car. The publication stated that following this incident, Ahmadinejad was allegedly taken by Mossad agents to a safe location. He later left for unknown reasons and did not appear in public again until the funeral of former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. According to senior Iranian officials, he was subsequently detained by the IRGC’s intelligence wing and placed under house arrest. Representatives of Mossad and Ahmadinejad’s spokesman Javanfekr declined to comment on the situation to The New York Times.
Ahmadinejad’s motives: power, not money
According to Abdolreza Davari, a former advisor and associate of Ahmadinejad, the ex-president would not have cooperated with Israel for financial gain. “He has money; he has a wide economic network. He would do it for power. He wants to be at the helm of power,” Davari told The New York Times in a telephone interview.
Another associate informed NYT that Ahmadinejad had expressed his ambitions to lead Iran with the backing of foreign states. He noted that after being barred from presidential elections three times, Ahmadinejad lost faith in the Iranian political system and increasingly clashed with representatives of the current government, particularly with Ali Khamenei. The source also claimed that Ahmadinejad had previously stated that if he returned to power, he would normalize relations with Israel through the Abraham Accords.
Source: The Jerusalem Post
