Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been placed under house arrest by the Intelligence Wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). This action was taken after Iranian officials discovered secret contacts between them and Israel. A global media publication reported this incident on Monday.
The report, citing four senior Iranian officials, said that Israel conducted a covert operation for several years, the purpose of which was to recruit Ahmadinejad as an intelligence asset. According to the investigation, Israel’s plan was to make the former president the leader of Iran again after toppling the current government.
When did the operation start?
The main phase of this operation is said to have taken place in Hungary in early 2024. A senior Hungarian government official asked Gergely Daly, rector of the Ludovica University of Public Service in Budapest, to invite Ahmadinejad to the climate change conference.
Daly later confirmed that he was told that the conference was a pretext for secret meetings between Ahmadinejad and Israeli intelligence. Daly agreed to this arrangement; He believed that if two arch enemies wanted to talk, it was better to help negotiate. Former US officials told the media that David Barnia, the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, himself went to Budapest to meet Ahmadinejad during the event.
How did you find out?
Ahmadinejad’s differences with the Iranian government escalated sharply earlier this year. In February, Israeli airstrikes targeted Ahmadinejad’s home compound, hitting his bodyguards and his armored car. After the attack, Mossad agents reportedly evacuated Ahmadinejad and took him to a secret safehouse.
Eventually he left the safe haven under unclear circumstances and was not seen by anyone for months. He appeared in public only when the funeral of Iran’s former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was taking place. Shortly thereafter, the IRGC’s intelligence wing took him into custody.
Why was Ahmadinejad helping Israel?
The former president’s associates say his cooperation with foreign intelligence was motivated solely by political ambition, not economic gain. Another aide said that Ahmadinejad had completely lost faith in the Iranian political system after being disqualified three times from running in Iran’s presidential elections. He harbored deep resentment toward government leaders and reportedly told people close to him that if he were returned to power with foreign support, he wanted to normalize Iran’s relations with Israel through the Abraham Accords.
Neither Mossad officials nor Ahmadinejad’s spokesman, Ali Akbar Javanfekar, have yet confirmed or denied the reports.
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