by Mosab Hassan Yousef
Here, exclusively for you, is the failed plan to topple the mullah regime. It ultimately failed because of Donald Trump, who lacked the courage to see it through.
The secret plan to install Ahmadinejad as Iran’s leader—and why it failed
- Mosab Hassan Yousef –
A high-ranking Israeli intelligence official has now confirmed what was kept under wraps during the recent war: Israel and the United States entered the conflict with a concrete plan to overthrow the Iranian regime and install former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as interim leader.
Major General (Ret.) Tamir Hayman, who headed military intelligence during Operation „Roaring Lion,“ spoke openly on the PBS program „Firing Line“ about the multi-stage operation intended to follow the initial attacks.
Ahmadinejad had been consulted beforehand and was initially willing to assume this role. The plan even called for a targeted Israeli strike on his home in Tehran on the very first day of the war—February 28—to free him from house arrest so he could publicly emerge as the new face of power.
However, the true centerpiece of the entire sequence was something far more ambitious: a Kurdish military invasion of northwestern Iran. The goal was to ignite uprisings among Iran’s oppressed ethnic minorities, tie down large numbers of IRGC and Basij troops, sow internal chaos, and pave the way for the regime’s collapse from within.
The plan never got that far. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan viewed any Kurdish advance as a direct threat to Turkey’s stability and interests. He personally persuaded President Trump to call off the Kurdish invasion. Once that initial step was removed, the entire sequence fell apart. Ahmadinejad himself was injured during the Israeli raid intended to liberate him. He survived, went underground, and quickly distanced himself from any further cooperation. He is still alive today. What was intended to be a clean „prison break“ turned into a near-death experience that ended his involvement.
During the first two weeks of the war, I met personally with Iranian-Kurdish leaders in Erbil, while under fire from the IRGC at the Iraq-Iran border. I saw the real potential on the ground—the networks, the motivation, and the strategic value of leveraging the internal pressure exerted by minorities within Iran. The Kurdish forces were willing and ready to act.
Trump had the chance to decisively alter the situation. When Erdoğan resisted, he backed down. That was the moment the operation lost its strategic backbone. At the beginning of that year, Israel had no plans to attack Iran.
Trump, emboldened by his success in Venezuela, wanted another quick victory. When faced with genuine challenges, he abandoned the plan’s main pillar.
The regime survived because the Kurdish card—the only serious internal lever available—was taken off the table before it could be played.
Through impatience and poor management of the conflict, President Trump turned a potentially historic opportunity into a strategic defeat. He is now desperately seeking a way out to save face, while the Iranian regime remains intact and more dangerous than ever.
This is not a theory. This actually happened.
