US-Israeli strike reportedly allows ex-Iranian Pres. Ahmadinejad to escape regime control

American and Israeli strikes near former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s residence in Narmak, northeast Tehran, at the onset of the Iran conflict reportedly allowed him to evade regime control. Initial reports suggested that Ahmadinejad had been killed in the attacks. However, his associates, speaking on condition of anonymity, maintain that he is alive and say the strikes effectively facilitated his break from the regime’s influence, according to reporting by The Atlantic.

Ahmadinejad served as Iran’s president from 2005 to 2013. During his presidency, Ahmadinejad embraced the ayatollah regime’s genocidal antisemitic rhetoric by calling for Israel’s destruction and a “World without Zionism.” However, he eventually became a strong critic of the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei after he was disqualified in 2017. 

The ex-president even paid tribute to Iran’s former monarchy, which was deemed unacceptable by the ayatollah regime. Ahmadinejad’s phones were confiscated by the regime, and he had around 50 bodyguards who were reportedly tasked to monitor him.

The Atlantic report said that the ayatollah regime further restricted Ahmadinejad’s freedom of movement following the murder of tens of thousands of anti-regime protesters in January. 

Several of Ahmadinejad’s bodyguards were killed in the Israeli and American strikes on Feb. 28, enabling him and his family to flee to an undisclosed location that the regime in Tehran is reportedly not aware of. Ahmadinejad has kept a low profile since the beginning of the war 12 days ago. However, he has reportedly made some public addresses and even sent a congratulatory message to Mojtaba Khamenei after he was elected the regime’s new supreme leader. 

In a 2018 interview with the Iranian magazine Mosallas, former Iranian Defense Minister Hussein Dehghan described Ahmadinejad’s complex relations with the regime as “the door of the mosque, which can’t be burned or thrown away” without bringing down the mosque itself. 

Iranian-born political analyst Meir Javendafar, who co-authored a biography of Ahmadinejad, reportedly told The Atlantic that the ayatollah regime feels threatened by him. 

“Arresting Ahmadinejad could unsettle the regime,” Javendafar said. “He knows a hell of a lot about it,” the Iran expert added.

In a 2024 CNN interview, Ahmadinejad claimed that the regime’s Israel-focused unit was led by a Mossad agent. 

“Israel organized complex operations inside Iran,” the former president told CNN.

“They could easily obtain information. In Iran, they are still silent about this. The man who was in charge of the unit in Iran against Israel was an Israeli agent,” he added.

However, other Iranian officials have also acknowledged that Mossad has successfully penetrated the senior ranks of the ayatollah regime. Former Iranian Intelligence Minister Ali Younesi addressed the Mossad issue as early as 2022. 

“The Mossad has infiltrated many government departments in the last 10 years, to such a degree that all the country's top officials should fear for their lives,” Younesi warned. 

The ayatollah regime regularly makes random arrests of individuals who are accused of cooperating with the Israeli foreign intelligence agency.