Israel's foreign intelligence service, the Mossad, spent nearly three years cultivating former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a potential post-regime-change leader for Tehran, according to a major investigative exposé published by Haaretz on July 13, 2026.
The report, authored by Michael Hauser Tov and based on interviews with more than 30 senior political, defense, diplomatic and foreign sources, traces how a relationship that once seemed unthinkable — between Israeli intelligence and a man long associated with Holocaust denial and hostility toward Israel — evolved into what Haaretz describes as one of the most ambitious covert undertakings in the country's history.
From adversary to asset
According to the investigation, Mossad analysts had, roughly a year before the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, already begun tracking a shift in Ahmadinejad's posture since he left the presidency in 2013: he had moved from being one of the regime's fiercest defenders to one of its most vocal domestic critics. Israeli intelligence reportedly focused on his growing conviction that Iran's economy could not withstand indefinite sanctions, and that the nuclear program had become more of a liability than a strategic asset. Those tracking the relationship concluded his opposition to the ayatollahs had deepened to the point where he might be willing to work with the Mossad and place his fate in its hands, Haaretz reports.
Notably, the exposé describes a Mossad team landing at an international airport abroad and switching on their phones just as news of the October 7 attack was breaking — an operatives' team that, despite the shock, continued its mission to recruit Ahmadinejad rather than abort it.
Barnea takes personal charge
Then-Mossad chief David Barnea is reported to have taken direct, personal oversight of the Ahmadinejad channel once the relationship appeared to be entering a more serious phase — to the point of skipping a security consultation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to attend to it, per Haaretz.
By early 2026, as Iran became Israel's central military and intelligence front, Ahmadinejad had reportedly become one of Israel's most valuable assets. When Jerusalem opted to pursue full regime change under an operation the paper names "Puss in Boots," Ahmadinejad was reportedly designated to take power in Tehran's aftermath, with the expectation he would abandon the nuclear weapons track and reposition Iran internationally.
A wider architecture behind one man
Haaretz reports that Ahmadinejad was only the most visible piece of a far larger regime-change architecture, which also allegedly included covert influence operations inside Iran, a program to arm and train Kurdish forces in Iraq, efforts to mobilize other Iranian minorities against the central government, and Israeli Air Force planning for a land corridor to support militia movements.
Internal dissent — and a chief of staff's order to halt
The investigation details substantial internal opposition within Israel's defense establishment. Maj. Gen. Shlomi Binder, head of IDF Military Intelligence, is reported to have produced an assessment giving the plan little chance of success, while Brig. Gen. Ofir Mizrahi Rosen, head of the Research Division, authored a separate paper casting doubt on the operation's feasibility. Then-national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi reportedly withdrew from the preparations altogether after concluding they rested on unrealistic assumptions.
According to Haaretz, the internal rift became acute enough that, three days before the operation's planned launch, IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir ordered a halt — an order Netanyahu is said to have overridden, choosing to proceed regardless.
Collapse before the first shot
The plan reportedly unraveled before Kurdish forces ever engaged, though the paper notes that almost six months on, the full account has remained untold until now. Haaretz frames its verdict bluntly, characterizing the operation as having been flawed from inception despite its ambition.
The full investigation, per the outlet, additionally covers the Mossad chief's reported meeting with Kurdish leaders, an effort to draw Azerbaijan into the confrontation, and the recruitment of collaborators inside Iran — details Haaretz says will be laid out in full in the complete published version.