Intelligence experts dispute Ahmadinejad ‘regime-change’ report

Former Israeli intelligence officers and an American defense expert are disputing a July 13 New York Times report alleging that the Mossad attempted to recruit former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as part of a regime-change operation. The article claimed Israeli intelligence groomed Ahmadinejad, secretly financed his travel to a Budapest conference for meetings with then-Mossad Director David Barnea, and later extracted him to an Israeli safe house after an airstrike on his Tehran compound. However, experts like Maj. (res.) Alexander Grinberg and Jason Brodsky expressed skepticism, questioning the plausibility of recruiting Ahmadinejad given his lack of domestic military support and the complexities of such an operation. Brig. Gen. (res.) Hanan Geffen also raised doubts about the described methods of contact and the idea of "crowning" Ahmadinejad as a leader. Brodsky suggested the story's disclosure might be intended to "inject paranoia in the Iranian regime" or serve domestic Israeli political angles.