{"id":15402,"date":"2026-03-12T05:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T05:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/15402\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T05:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T05:20:13","slug":"israel-us-strike-on-irans-former-president-acted-as-jailbreak-from-regime-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/15402\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel-US strike on Iran’s former president acted as jailbreak from regime control"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since his alleged escape, Ahmadinejad has made few public addresses, including a congratulatory message on Mojtaba Khamenei\u2019s rise to supreme leader.<\/p>\n

The joint Israeli-US strike on former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the start of the ongoing war with Iran, rather than killing him, acted as a jailbreak from regime control, according to The Atlantic, citing Ahmadinejad\u2019s associates.<\/p>\n

Ahmadinejad\u2019s associates, speaking on condition of anonymity, claim that he is alive, contradicting previous reports of his death<\/a> during the opening strikes of Operation Roaring Lion and Epic Fury.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Atlantic further noted that Ahmadinejad\u2019s freedom of movement had been restricted following the mass anti-regime protests in January, where an estimated 36,500 people were killed by the Iranian regime.<\/p>\n

His phones were reportedly confiscated, and the number of his bodyguards was raised to approximately 50.<\/p>\n

The strikes, Ahmadinejad\u2019s associates said, struck near his residence in Narnak, northeast Tehran, killing several of his bodyguards and allowing him and his family to flee underground.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A view shows the aftermath of an Israel and the US strike on a building in Tehran, Iran, February 28, 2026 (credit: Amir Kholousi\/ISNA\/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS)<\/p>\n

His current location is unknown to the regime, according to The Atlantic. <\/p>\n

Since his alleged escape, Ahmadinejad has made a few public addresses, including a congratulatory message on Mojtaba Khamenei\u2019s rise to supreme leader.<\/p>\n

Ahmadinejad becomes critic of Khamenei, regime<\/p>\n

Ahmadinejad served as Iranian president from 2005 until 2013. Following this, he has been barred three times from running for president again by an unelected 12-member Guardian Council, in 2017, 2021, and 2024.<\/p>\n

After the 2017 disqualification, he reportedly became a vocal critic of Ali Khamenei<\/a>, going so far as to pay tribute to Iran\u2019s former monarchy.<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2018, former Iranian defense minister Hussein Dehghan told the Iranian magazine Mosallas that Ahmadinejad was similar to \u201cthe door of the mosque, which can\u2019t be burned or thrown away\u201d without bringing down the mosque itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cArresting Ahmadinejad could unsettle the regime,\u201dThe Atlantic quoted Meir Javedanfar, co-author of a biography of Ahmadinejad, as saying. \u201cHe knows a hell of a lot about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

James Genn and Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since his alleged escape, Ahmadinejad has made few public addresses, including a congratulatory message on Mojtaba Khamenei\u2019s rise…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[327,8192,34,8123,8191,2289,8193,69,8194],"class_list":{"0":"post-15402","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tehran","8":"tag-ali-khamenei","9":"tag-congratulatory-message","10":"tag-iran","11":"tag-iranian-president","12":"tag-mahmoud-ahmedinejad","13":"tag-mojtaba-khamenei","14":"tag-public-addresses","15":"tag-tehran","16":"tag-the-atlantic"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116214524967374137","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}