NYT: Israeli-developed war plans sought to have Ahmedinejad run Iran after Khamenei killed

An Israeli-developed plan called for installing Holocaust-denying former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as Iran’s new leader after the killing of supreme leader Ali Khamenei and other top Iranian officials at the start of the US-Israel war against the Islamic Republic, according to the New York Times.

Ahmadinejad was reportedly consulted about the plan but became wary after being wounded in an Israeli strike in Tehran meant to spring him from house arrest, and has not been seen publicly since.

The newspaper notes that though Ahmadinejad has feuded with senior regime figures, he has called to “wipe Israel off the map” and backed Iran’s nuclear program, stressing that “to say he was an unusual choice would be a vast understatement.”

According to the report, having Ahmadinejad take power was one of the stages in Israel’s envisioned multiphase plan for the war, the first of which was the opening US and Israeli aerial campaign that killed top Iranian officials and a mobilization of Kurdish forces to fight against Iran.

After the strikes and planned Kurdish invasion that never materialized, the report said Israel believed Iran’s regime would be sufficiently destabilized and ultimately collapse due to political pressure and damage to key infrastructure, with an “alternative government” then able to take charge.