US and Israel planned to install Ahmadinejad as Iranian leader, NYT says

Al Jazeera · 🇶🇦 public Qatar · May 20, 2026 · 625 words · By Al Jazeera Staff

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What to know about US and Israel planned to install Ahmadinejad as Iranian leader, NYT says

US and Israel planned to install Ahmadinejad as Iranian leader, NYT says Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was being lined up by the US and Israel in Iran similarly to Rodriguez after Maduro in Venezuela.

Claims checked 11

Techniques found 0

Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage

Left0%

Center80%

Right20%

5 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

US and Israel planned to install Ahmadinejad as Iranian leader, NYT says Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was being lined up by the US and Israel in Iran similarly to Rodriguez after Maduro in Venezuela.

Why it matters

The United States and Israel went into war on Iran intending to replace the regime’s leadership with hardline former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, The New York Times reported.

Common ground

Quoting US officials who were briefed on the “audacious plan”, the newspaper said things “quickly went awry”, and Ahmadinejad’s “current whereabouts and condition are unknown”.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

Follow-up questions

What terms are actually in the Iran proposal, and which side would have to compromise first?
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that in a 2019 interview, Ahmadinejad praised President Trump and argued for a rapprochement between Iran and the US?
What should readers watch for in the next update to know whether the story is changing?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/20/us-and-israel-planned-to-install-ahmadi…

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 11 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

info Single Source 6

help Insufficient Evidence 2

verified Verified 1

schedule Pending 1

check_circle Corroborated 1

info

Claim 1: “in a 2019 interview, Ahmadinejad praised President Trump and argued for a rapprochement between Iran and the US”

SINGLE SOURCE

The search results provide general information about the year 2019 but do not mention any interview or statements by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad regarding Donald Trump.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Ali Ardashir Larijani (3 June 1958 – 17 March 2026) was an Iranian politician, military officer, and philosopher who served as the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council from 2025 until hi…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Larijani

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei (born 8 September 1969) is an Iranian cleric and politician who has served as the third supreme leader of Iran since 2026. A member of the Khamenei family and the second son …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mojtaba_Khamenei

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Ronald Steven Lauder (born February 26, 1944) is an American businessman. He is the sole heir to The Estée Lauder Companies, founded by his parents Estée Lauder and Joseph Lauder in 1946, following th…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Lauder

+ 27 more evidence sources

info

Claim 2: “The United States and Israel went into war on Iran intending to replace the regime’s leadership with hardline former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad”

SINGLE SOURCE

The provided web search results for this claim are generic Wikipedia and news homepages for the US and Reuters; they contain no information regarding a war with Iran or the installation of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — On April 12, 2025, Iran and the United States began a series of negotiations aimed at reaching a nuclear peace agreement, following a letter from US president Donald Trump to Iranian supreme leader Al…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025–2026_Iran–United_States_n…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — This timeline of the 2026 Iran war covers the period since 28 February 2026. The war is ongoing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_2026_Iran_war

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — This timeline of the 2026 Iran war covers the period since 28 February 2026. The war is ongoing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_2026_Iran_war

+ 30 more evidence sources

help

Claim 3: “An article in the Atlantic in March said the attack on the house was “in effect a jailbreak operation””

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was provided or found for this claim.

verified

Claim 4: “the willingness of his interim replacement, Delcy Rodriguez, to work with the White House”

VERIFIED

Wikipedia and multiple news sources confirm that Delcy Rodríguez became the acting president of Venezuela in January 2026 following the capture of Nicolás Maduro.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Delcy Eloína Rodríguez Gómez is a Venezuelan lawyer, diplomat, and politician who is currently the acting president of Venezuela since January 2026, after the United States captured then-president Nic…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delcy_Rodríguez

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Nicolás Maduro, a former bus driver and trade unionist, rose to prominence under the leadership of the previous left-wing Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, serving as his foreign minister. Maduro was …
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crmlz7r0zrxo

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Delcy Rodriguez is the daughter of left-wing guerrilla fighter Jorge Antonio Rodriguez.She called on the US government to provide proof of life for Maduro and his wife in an audio message played on st…
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/venezuela-news-who-is-delcy-…

+ 18 more evidence sources

help

Claim 5: “Ahmedinejad, who was president from 2003 to 2013”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was provided or found for this claim.

schedule

Claim 6: “He was disqualified from numerous presidential elections, his aides were arrested and Mr Ahmadinejad’s movements were increasingly restricted to his home”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

info

Claim 7: “he was known during his term as president, from 2005 to 2013, for his calls to ‘wipe Israel off the map’”

SINGLE SOURCE

The search results returned information about a different person named Mahmoud Khalil, an activist, rather than the former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (né Sabbaghian; born 28 October 1956) is an Iranian politician who served as the sixth president of Iran from 2005 to 2013. Ideologically a principlist and nationalist, he was a me…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the president of Iran from 3 August 2005 to 3 August 2013, and during that time had repeatedly made contentious speeches and statements against Israel. Ahmadinejad refused to c…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad_and_Israel

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad consists of the 9th and 10th governments of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government began in August 2005 after his election as the 6th pres…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_Mahmoud_Ahmadine…

+ 30 more evidence sources

info

Claim 8: “After the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, US President Donald Trump mused that it would be best if “someone from within” Iran took over the country”

SINGLE SOURCE

The evidence provided consists of general biographical information about Donald Trump and homepages for AP News and the White House, with no mention of comments regarding Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's death.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The 2025–2026 Iranian protests were a series of nationwide demonstrations against the government of Iran that began on 28 December 2025 amid a deepening economic crisis. The unrest followed a sharp de…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025–2026_Iranian_protests

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — On 28 February 2026, Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, was assassinated in Tehran as part of a series of Israeli airstrikes aimed at high-ranking Iranian officials. Khamenei's death was confir…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Ali_Khamenei

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Iran–United States relations during the first Trump administration (2017–2021) were marked by a sharp policy shift from Obama's engagement-oriented approach. Trump began with a travel ban affecting Ir…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran–United_States_relations_d…

+ 27 more evidence sources

info

Claim 9: “Ahmadinejad’s “current whereabouts and condition are unknown””

SINGLE SOURCE

The search results returned information about electrical current and banking apps, which are irrelevant to the person Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

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+ 27 more evidence sources

info

Claim 10: “Ahmadinejad was reportedly wounded on the first day of the war by an Israeli strike on his home in Tehran, which was intended to free him from house arrest”

SINGLE SOURCE

The search results are general homepages for Israel, The Times of Israel, and The Jerusalem Post, providing no specific information about a strike on Ahmadinejad's home.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — An Israeli strike designed to free Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from house arrest in Tehran, U.S. officials said, was part of an effort to bring about regime change and put him in power.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/19/us/politics/iran-israel-u…

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web search NEUTRAL — Ahmadinejad was reportedly wounded on the first day of the war by an Israeli strike on his home in Tehran, which was intended to free him from house arrest, American officials told the Times.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/20/us-and-israel-plann…

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web search NEUTRAL — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iran.Officials briefed on the matter and a person close to Ahmadinejad told the paper that the Israeli strike on the first day of the war at Ahmadinejad’s home in Tehran was meant…
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/bka4o351fx

+ 18 more evidence sources

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Claim 11: “special forces raid that kidnapped Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro”

CORROBORATED

Three independent web search results confirm that US special forces conducted an operation to seize/detain Nicolás Maduro from his compound in Caracas.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — US special forces dropped from helicopters directly into President Nicolas Maduro's compound - Fort Tiuna - in the centre of Caracas as fighter jets launched air strikes across the capital.
https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15431903/Venezuela-Do…

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web search NEUTRAL — Before he was seized by US forces, Maduro had been defiant. Venezuela's former leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are due back in court in New York later on Thursday, where they face ch…
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crmlz7r0zrxo

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — On January 3, the United States carried out a large-scale special operation in Venezuela, during which the country's leader, Nicolás Maduro, was detained. US military personnel transported him to the …
https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/us-operation-in-venezuela-ki…

+ 18 more evidence sources

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.