Netanyahu and Trump's Plan for Iran: How They Tried to Change the Regime!

The New York Times revealed, citing American officials, that the first Israeli strike during the war on Iran targeted the home of former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as part of a broader plan aimed at effecting regime change and bringing him back to the political scene.

According to the newspaper, the raid that targeted Ahmadinejad's home on the first day of the war was intended to free him from the house arrest imposed on him in Tehran, as part of a multi-stage plan devised by the United States and Israel to overthrow the Iranian regime.

The newspaper pointed out that US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu entered the war betting on the possibility of pushing a figure from within the Iranian regime to take power after the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and a number of senior officials in the initial strikes.

It added that the name Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was raised within American-Israeli discussions as a figure capable of managing the political, social, and military situation inside Iran, despite his known history of hardline stances hostile to the United States and Israel.

Ahmadinejad disappeared after the raid

According to American officials and a source close to Ahmadinejad, the former Iranian president survived the raid that targeted his home, but he lost confidence in the regime change plan after the attack.

The newspaper explained that Ahmadinejad has not appeared publicly since then, while his whereabouts and condition remain unknown.

It also revealed that initial reports had spoken of his death in the strike, before The Atlantic magazine later confirmed that he was released after the attack in an operation described as resembling a prison escape.

The New York Times indicated that a number of American officials expressed doubts about the feasibility of returning Ahmadinejad to power, considering that the plan was fraught with risks and unworkable.

It added that American officials discussed with Israel during the first days of the war the possibility of pushing a pragmatic figure to lead Iran, based on intelligence information that spoke of the readiness of some elements within the regime to cooperate with Washington.

In recent years, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad entered into repeated disputes with the leaders of the Iranian regime, and accused senior officials of corruption, before being excluded from several presidential elections and having severe restrictions imposed on his movements, ending with him being placed under house arrest in his home in the Narmak area east of Tehran.