PDB Afternoon Bulletin | July 13th, 2026: BOMBSHELL: Mossad Tried To Make Ahmadinejad Iran's Next Leader & Iran Targets Jewish Sites In Europe

**Mike Baker** (0:12)
It's Monday, the 13th of July. Welcome to The PDB Afternoon Bulletin. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First up, according to a new report from The New York Times, Israeli intelligence secretly cultivated former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a potential replacement for the Islamic Republic's leadership. We'll take you inside that operation. Later in the show, Britain says Iran is orchestrating attacks on Jewish targets across Europe through criminal proxies. Now London is moving to ban Tehran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. One of the most extraordinary intelligence operations to emerge from the recent war with Iran is now coming into focus. According to an extensive investigation published Monday by The New York Times, Israel spent years secretly cultivating one of the most unlikely intelligence assets imaginable. That would be former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. For years, Ahmadinejad was one of the most recognizable faces of Iran's hardline regime. During his presidency that ran from 2005 to 2013, he accelerated Iran's nuclear program, repeatedly called for Israel's destruction, denied the Holocaust, and oversaw the brutal suppression of anti-government protests following the disputed 2009 election.
Which is why the allegations in the New York Times investigation are so remarkable. Citing current and former American, Israeli, and Iranian officials, the paper reports that Israel's Mossad intelligence service quietly began cultivating Ahmadinejad after his relationship with Iran's grueling clerical establishment began to deteriorate. As he became increasingly marginalized by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and repeatedly barred from returning to the presidency, Israeli intelligence reportedly saw an opportunity.
According to the report, Mossad concluded that Ahmadinejad's growing resentment toward the regime and his continued popularity among parts of Iran's working class could make him a viable figure in the event that the Islamic Republic collapsed. The operation reportedly began in earnest in 2024
That year, Ahmadinejad was invited to Budapest to attend what appeared to be an academic conference on climate change hosted by Ludovica University. But according to university officials interviewed by The Times, the conference itself served as little more than a cover story for secret meetings between Ahmadinejad and Israeli intelligence officers. The investigation says that then Mossad director David Barnea personally traveled to Budapest to meet with the former Iranian president. Following that meeting, Mossad reportedly informed the CIA that it had established contact with Ahmadinejad.
According to the report, Ahmadinejad returned to Budapest again the following year, once more using a university conference as cover for additional clandestine meetings with Israeli operatives.
Israeli intelligence allegedly provided financial support for housing and travel expenses throughout the operation, while Ahmadinejad reportedly managed to evade the Iranian security personnel assigned to monitor him during portions of those overseas trips.
The report suggests Ahmadinejad's motivation was not financial. Former associates told The Times that after being disqualified from running for president three separate times, Ahmadinejad had become convinced that the Islamic Republic would never allow him to regain power through normal political channels. Instead, he reportedly began imagining a different path. According to one close associate cited in the investigation, Ahmadinejad believed that if the current regime fell, he could emerge as a Boris Yeltsin-style reformer who would stabilize the country, normalize relations with Israel, and even join President Trump's Abraham Accords. Israeli intelligence reportedly viewed him as a uniquely positioned insider, someone with revolutionary credentials who also possessed a nationwide political network and enough name recognition to potentially lead a post-regime Iran. That long-running operation reached its climax during the opening days of this year's US-Israeli war against the regime. According to The Times, Israeli aircraft struck Ahmadinejad's compound in Tehran, targeting buildings used by his security detail as well as his armored vehicle. Moments later, amid the confusion, a black Peugeot vehicle reportedly arrived, picked him up, and spirited him away from the scene. American and Iranian officials familiar with the operation told the newspaper that the vehicle was operated by Mossad personnel who transported Ahmadinejad to a secret Israeli safe house inside Iran.
The next phase of the plan was reportedly supposed to unfold from there. Israeli officials allegedly intended to use Ahmadinejad as part of a broader regime change operation that also included support for Kurdish opposition forces based in northern Iraq. The objective was to establish a viable alternative government if the Islamic Republic began to collapse under military pressure.
But according to the report, everything began to fall apart almost immediately. Ahmadinejad reportedly became increasingly uncomfortable with the operation and disillusioned with Israel's plans. Under circumstances that remain unclear, he eventually left the safe house before the broader operation could be executed. He then disappeared from public view for months. His first public appearance came only last week during the funeral procession for former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, where observers noted that Ahmadinejad stood silently, surrounded by what appeared to be security personnel. According to four senior Iranian officials cited by the New York Times, Iranian intelligence has since pieced together much of Ahmadinejad's contact with Israel.