Early War Goal Was to Install Hard Line Former President as Iran's Leader

"Mr. Ahmadinejad was injured on the war's first day by an Israeli strike at his home in Tehran that had been designed to free him from house arrest, the American officials and an associate of Mr. Ahmadinejad said. He survived the strike, they said, but after the near miss he became disillusioned with the regime change plan. He has not been seen publicly since then and his current whereabouts and condition are unknown."

"To say that Mr. Ahmadinejad was an unusual choice would be a vast understatement. While he had increasingly clashed with the regime's leaders and had been placed under close watch by the Iranian authorities, he was known during his term as president, from 2005 to 2013, for his calls to wipe Israel off the map. He was a strong supporter of Iran's nuclear program, a fierce critic of the United States and known for violently cracking down on internal dissent."

"President Trump mused publicly that it would be best if someone from within Iran took over the country. It turns out that the United States and Israel went into the conflict with a particular and very surprising someone in mind: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former Iranian president known for his hard-line, anti-Israel and anti-American views. But the audacious plan, developed by the Israelis and which Mr. Ahmadinejad had been consulted about, quickly went awry, according to the U.S. officials who were briefed on it."

Israeli strikes and U.S.-Israeli operations killed Iran’s supreme leader and other top officials early in the war. President Trump publicly suggested that someone inside Iran should take over the country. U.S. officials said the United States and Israel had a specific candidate in mind: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a former Iranian president known for hard-line anti-Israel and anti-American views. The plan, developed by Israelis and consulted with Ahmadinejad, quickly went wrong. He was injured on the first day when an Israeli strike at his Tehran home was intended to free him from house arrest. He survived but became disillusioned, and he has not been seen publicly since; his whereabouts and condition remain unknown.

Read at www.nytimes.com