Mosab Hassan Yousef on X:

The Secret Plan to Install Ahmadinejad as Iran’s Leader, And Why It Collapsed

A senior Israeli intelligence figure has now confirmed what was hidden during the recent war: Israel and the United States went into the conflict with a concrete plan to overthrow the Iranian regime and install former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the transitional leader.

Maj. Gen. (res.) Tamir Hayman, who headed Military Intelligence during Operation Roaring Lion, spoke openly on PBS’s Firing Line about the multi-stage operation that was supposed to follow the initial strikes.

Ahmadinejad had been consulted in advance and was initially willing to play the role. The plan even included a targeted Israeli strike on his home in Tehran on the very first day of the war, February 28 designed to free him from house arrest so he could publicly emerge as the new face of power.

But the real centerpiece of the entire sequence was something far more ambitious: a Kurdish military invasion into northwestern Iran. The goal was to ignite rebellions among Iran’s oppressed ethnic minorities, pin down large numbers of IRGC and Basij forces, create internal chaos, and open the door for regime collapse from within.

The plan never got that far. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan saw any Kurdish advance as a direct threat to Turkey’s stability and interests. He personally convinced President Trump to cancel the Kurdish invasion. Once that opening move was removed, the whole sequence fell apart.

Ahmadinejad himself was injured in the Israeli strike meant to liberate him. He survived, went underground, and quickly distanced himself from any further cooperation. He is alive today. What was intended as a clean “jailbreak” became a near-death experience that ended his involvement.

I personally met with Iranian Kurdish leaders in Erbil during the first two weeks of the war, under IRGC fire on the Iraqi-Iranian border. I saw the real potential on the ground, the networks, the motivation, and the strategic value of using internal pressure from Iran’s minorities. Kurdish forces were willing and ready to move.

Trump had the chance to change the equation decisively. When Erdoğan pushed back, he blinked. That was the moment the operation lost its strategic backbone. Israel had no plans to strike Iran early this year.

Trump, emboldened by his success in Venezuela, wanted another quick win. When faced with real challenges, he abandoned the main pillar of the plan.

The regime survived because the Kurdish card, the only serious internal lever available was removed before it could be played.

President Trump turned a potential historic opportunity into a strategic defeat through impatience and poor war management. He is now desperately seeking an exit to save face, while the Iranian regime remains intact and more dangerous.

This is not theory. This is what actually happened.