Former Iranian President Ahmadinejad Reportedly Under House Arrest Over Alleged Mossad Contacts (Worthy News In-Depth)

by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Chief International Correspondent

JERUSALEM/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is under house arrest in Iran after authorities reportedly uncovered what they say was an Israeli covert operation to recruit him as an intelligence asset and ultimately install him as Iran’s leader, according to The New York Times and officials cited by the newspaper.

The 69-year-old was reportedly detained and placed under house arrest by the intelligence arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) over allegations that he cooperated with Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, according to officials familiar with the situation.

Ahmadinejad was reportedly taken into custody after leaving what Iranian officials described as a Mossad-operated safe house, Iranian sources cited by The New York Times said.

According to the newspaper, on February 28 this year, an Israeli airstrike struck Ahmadinejad’s residential compound, reportedly hitting his bodyguards and armored vehicle. Mossad operatives allegedly moved him to a secret safe house, which he later left for reasons that remain unclear. He next appeared publicly at the funeral of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

One of the operation’s most unusual stages reportedly took place in early 2024, when a senior Hungarian government official allegedly asked Gergely Deli, rector of Budapest’s Ludovika University of Public Service, to invite Ahmadinejad to what was presented as a climate change conference. Hungary, under the previous Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, had close relations with Israel, Worthy News reported earlier.

SECRET BUDAPEST CONTACTS

Deli reportedly said he was informed that the event would actually provide cover for secret talks between Ahmadinejad and Israeli intelligence officials.

Despite concerns about the potential reputational risks, he agreed because he believed that “if two enemies want to talk to each other, it is best to do what you can to make that happen.”

Former U.S. officials also told The New York Times that then-Mossad chief David Barnea personally traveled to Budapest to meet Ahmadinejad as part of the clandestine effort.

The newspaper said Israeli intelligence maintained contacts with Ahmadinejad’s inner circle over several years. Mossad and Ahmadinejad’s spokesman, Ali Akbar Javanfekr, declined to comment on the allegations.

Abdolreza Davari, a former adviser to Ahmadinejad, told The New York Times that the former president was motivated not by money but by political ambition.

POWER OVER MONEY

“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 reportedly said.

According to associates cited by the newspaper, Ahmadinejad became increasingly alienated from Iran’s ruling establishment after being barred from running in three presidential elections. They said he privately discussed returning to power with foreign backing and reportedly indicated he would seek to normalize relations with Israel through the Abraham Accords if he regained office.

If true, those reported private views would represent a dramatic reversal from Ahmadinejad’s long-standing public rhetoric. During his presidency from 2005 to 2013, he repeatedly described Israel as a “cancerous tumor” and an “illegitimate Zionist regime.” He also echoed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s call that the Zionist regime should “vanish from the page of time”—a phrase often translated as “wiped off the map,” though that translation has long been disputed.

Ahmadinejad also publicly questioned and mocked the Holocaust, or Shoah, describing it as a myth or fabrication used to justify Israel’s existence. Those remarks drew widespread international condemnation.

The allegations surrounding Ahmadinejad’s reported contacts with Mossad are extraordinary and remain based largely on unnamed current and former Iranian, Israeli, and U.S. officials cited by The New York Times.

Iranian authorities have not publicly detailed the accusations, while Israeli officials have declined to comment. If confirmed, the allegations would rank among the most remarkable intelligence operations ever reported involving a former president of the Islamic Republic.

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