# Israel and the U.S. tested an unusual post-strike Iran plan, report says
A Jerusalem Post report says Israel and the United States went into their operations against Iran with an extraordinary political idea in mind: reinstalling former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the country’s next leader. The account, based on a New York Times report cited by the paper, describes an unconventional strategy that went far beyond military objectives.
The report says an associate of Ahmadinejad told the Times that U.S. officials saw him as someone who could manage Iran’s political, social and military situation. That detail is important because it shows the concept was not simply speculative chatter. It was presented, at least in part, as a possible leadership solution in a post-strike environment.
Ahmadinejad is a controversial figure even by Iranian standards. He served as president from 2005 to 2013 and was later barred three times from running again by the Guardian Council, according to the report. His profile includes hard-line anti-Israel and anti-American rhetoric, as well as long-standing support for Iran’s nuclear program. Those attributes make him an unusual candidate for any outside-backed succession plan.
The article says the plan ultimately failed after Ahmadinejad was wounded during what it describes as a jailbreak-style strike on his home, leaving his whereabouts and condition unclear. It also says the attack was originally intended to free rather than assassinate him, which adds another layer of oddity to the entire sequence of events.
The available report is heavy on allegation and light on independently confirmed official acknowledgment. Neither U.S. nor Israeli officials directly commented to the New York Times, according to the Jerusalem Post. That means the claim should be read as reporting on what informed sources told the newspaper, not as a confirmed public policy statement from Washington or Jerusalem.
Even so, the report is revealing because it suggests that the endgame around Iran may have included a search for a figure who could stabilize the country after a major strike. Ahmadinejad is a paradoxical choice for that role: he is a former insider, but also a political outlier with a deeply polarizing record and a history of confrontation with Israel and the United States.
The Jerusalem Post account does not prove the plan was operational or widely adopted. It does, however, show that the post-strike discussion involved more than military targets. It reached into the question of who might govern Iran if the political order were disrupted.
For now, the story stands as a report about an unusual and highly improbable geopolitical idea, one that appears to have been discussed but not realized. The lack of official confirmation leaves many details unresolved, but the reporting itself is striking because it turns a war-planning question into a succession question.
Source note
Jerusalem Post, Israel, US tried to appoint Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as Iran's new leader | The Jerusalem Post, https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-896782; cited claim basis: 12693.
