In one of the most surprising twists in recent Middle Eastern geopolitics, reports have emerged that the United States and Israel entered their 2026 war with Iran harboring a covert regime change strategy—one that aimed to install former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the nation’s new leader. According to The New York Times and corroborated by multiple sources, this audacious plan unraveled almost as quickly as it began, leaving a trail of questions and a missing ex-president whose current whereabouts remain unknown.
The outlines of the plan, as detailed by The New York Times and summarized by The Hill, involved a multistage strategy developed primarily by Israeli officials, with U.S. support. The goal was not simply to cripple Iran’s nuclear capabilities—as publicly stated by President Trump and his administration—but to orchestrate a seismic shift in the country’s leadership. The surprise candidate at the center of this plot was none other than Ahmadinejad, a figure known internationally for his Holocaust denial, fierce anti-Israel rhetoric, and unwavering support for Iran’s nuclear ambitions during his presidency from 2005 to 2013.
Why Ahmadinejad? That’s the question that left many analysts scratching their heads. As The New York Times put it, “To say that Mr Ahmadinejad was an unusual choice would be a vast understatement.” Despite his history as a hardliner and his infamous calls to “wipe Israel off the map,” Ahmadinejad had, in recent years, clashed with Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and was increasingly marginalized by the regime. He accused the clerical establishment of corruption and, as a result, found himself barred from seeking office again. His circle was under constant surveillance, and some of his associates were even accused of having suspiciously close ties to the West.
Still, the calculus among U.S. and Israeli planners appeared to hinge on Ahmadinejad’s estrangement from the current regime and his potential appeal as a populist alternative. According to The Atlantic, the operation bore striking similarities to the U.S. raid that kidnapped Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, after which the White House installed an interim replacement willing to work with American interests. President Trump, reportedly buoyed by the perceived success in Venezuela, believed the same model could be replicated in Iran, especially with Ahmadinejad’s apparent willingness to engage with the West. In a 2019 interview, Ahmadinejad even praised Trump, saying, “Mr Trump is a man of action. He is a businessman and therefore he is capable of calculating cost-benefits and making a decision. We say to him, let’s calculate the long-term cost-benefit of our two nations and not be shortsighted.”
But the regime change plan never got off the ground. In the opening salvo of Operation Epic Fury, the U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on February 28, 2026, targeted both Iran’s supreme leader and Ahmadinejad himself. The strike on Ahmadinejad’s home in Tehran was, according to American officials cited by The New York Times, a “jailbreak operation” intended to free him from house arrest and set the stage for his return to power. Instead, Ahmadinejad was seriously wounded in the attack. Though he survived and reportedly escaped house arrest despite his injuries, the near-death experience appears to have soured him on the entire enterprise. As The Atlantic noted, after the strike, Ahmadinejad “became disillusioned with the regime change plan and stopped cooperating.” Since then, his location and condition have been the subject of speculation and rumor, with no public sightings or statements confirming his fate.
The initial airstrikes also killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei—a development that, under different circumstances, might have created a power vacuum ripe for exploitation. Yet, as The Jerusalem Post observed, it was never clear how Ahmadinejad, a former president with no religious authority and a deeply fractured relationship with Iran’s ruling clerics, could have seized the reins of power. Masoud Pezeshkian remained in office as president, and the broader Iranian establishment showed little appetite for a return to Ahmadinejad’s brand of populist nationalism.
For context, Ahmadinejad’s political journey is as unconventional as his brief starring role in this failed regime change plot. Born in 1956 in Semnan province to a modest family, he rose through the political ranks after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, serving as mayor of Tehran before winning the presidency in 2005. His tenure was marked by inflammatory rhetoric, a hardline stance on Iran’s nuclear program, and a penchant for international controversy—most notably his repeated questioning of the Holocaust and antagonism toward Israel. By the time he left office in 2013, Ahmadinejad had alienated not only the West but also Iran’s own clerical elite, leading to his marginalization and eventual house arrest.
Despite this, Ahmadinejad refused to fade quietly into obscurity. He continued to dabble in politics, attempting to run for office in 2017 and 2020, only to be disqualified each time. He was briefly arrested in 2018 for “inciting unrest” and became a minor social media celebrity, commenting on everything from Black Lives Matter to American sports. His outsider status, combined with his willingness to criticize the regime, made him a convenient foil for both internal and external power brokers—though hardly the ideal candidate for Western-backed regime change.
Throughout the conflict, the Trump administration publicly maintained that Operation Epic Fury was focused solely on eliminating Iran’s nuclear capabilities. “The United States Military met or exceeded all of its objectives, and now, our negotiators are working to make a deal that would end Iran’s nuclear capabilities for good,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told The Hill. President Trump himself emphasized that the operation’s objectives were to “destroy Iran’s offensive missiles and production, destroy its navy and other security infrastructure, and to ensure Iran will never have nuclear weapons.” Yet, the revelations about the Ahmadinejad plan suggest that the true ambitions of the U.S. and Israel may have extended far beyond what was publicly acknowledged.
The failure of the plan has left a vacuum of both power and information. Ahmadinejad, once at the center of an international storm, is now a ghost—wounded, missing, and perhaps pondering his own role in a drama that nearly upended his country’s future. As for Iran, the death of Ayatollah Khamenei and the chaos unleashed by the war have left the nation at a crossroads, with its leadership and direction more uncertain than ever.
In the end, the strange saga of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s near-return to power underscores the unpredictable nature of regime change operations and the perils of betting on unlikely allies. The story serves as a reminder that in the high-stakes world of international politics, yesterday’s adversaries can become tomorrow’s pawns—and that, sometimes, even the best-laid plans can unravel in the fog of war.