Trump says US will take over Strait of Hormuz

On Monday, The New York Times and Haaretz alleged that Mossad cultivated Ahmadinejad as an intelligence asset and even considered him for a role leading Iran if the Islamic Republic collapsed.

The office of the former president swiftly dismissed the reports as Hollywood material that was hardly worth denying.

For those who followed Ahmadinejad's trajectory after leaving office, however, the allegation itself is less surprising than the path that may have led to it.

"He certainly was very ambitious and wanted power. And it was clear that there was no way he could get to power so long as Khamenei and the regime were in charge," historian and author Arash Azizi, who remained in contact with Ahmadinejad for years after he left office, told Iran International.

Whether Ahmadinejad was ever a credible candidate to lead Iran is a separate question. So, too, is why an alleged intelligence relationship of such sensitivity is now being described publicly in remarkable detail.

"If Ahmadinejad was their person indeed... you burn this stuff 20 years later. What's the insistence on doing it right now?" Azizi said.

From president to political outsider

Ahmadinejad served as Iran's president from 2005 to 2013, rising to power with the backing of Ali Khamenei and becoming one of the Islamic Republic's most recognizable figures. His presidency was marked by Holocaust denial, calls for Israel's destruction and the violent crackdown that followed the disputed 2009 presidential election.

But his relationship with the political establishment that brought him to power steadily deteriorated.

Meir Javedanfar, an Iran lecturer at Reichman University who co-authored a biography of Ahmadinejad, said Ahmadinejad increasingly believed he deserved more authority than Iran's political system allowed him.

"He believed that he had the intellectual capability and charisma and public support to have much more authority and much more power than the regime was giving him," Javedanfar told Iran International.

That frustration became visible in 2011, when Ahmadinejad boycotted official duties for 11 days after Khamenei overruled his attempt to dismiss intelligence minister Heydar Moslehi — one of the most public challenges to the supreme leader by a sitting president.

The rupture accelerated after he left office. Close allies, including Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, were arrested, while Ahmadinejad himself was repeatedly barred from returning to the presidential race.

"After he left office, this frustration was supplemented by anger towards the regime," Javedanfar said.

"And this is why I think he would have been open to recruitment by foreign intelligence agencies... because of the tremendous anger he had towards the regime."

The New York Times reported a similar trajectory. According to the report, Ahmadinejad eventually concluded he could not return to power while the existing political system remained in place.

An associate told the newspaper Ahmadinejad envisioned returning to power with foreign backing and, if successful, would recognize Israel and normalize relations under the Abraham Accords.

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A transformation seen up close

Azizi began speaking regularly with Ahmadinejad and members of his circle after the former president left office. By then, he said, Ahmadinejad's faction had begun drifting away from the conservative establishment. His circle appeared less Islamist and more nationalist while reaching out to journalists and political figures outside the Islamic Republic's traditional orbit.

"What I saw in Ahmadinejad all these years was someone who was very ambitious, who wanted power, who understood Iranian public sentiments very well, almost masterfully," Azizi said.

He also appeared increasingly aware that his record on Israel would complicate any political comeback. Azizi recalled arranging an interview between Ahmadinejad and an Israeli journalist and said the former president repeatedly expressed an interest in discussing Jewish history and Israel.

"He seemed to be open to normalization with Israel," Azizi said.

Azizi said Ahmadinejad became noticeably more secluded around 2024 — roughly the same period The New York Times reported that his contacts with Israeli intelligence intensified.

The alleged recruitment

It remains unclear exactly when Israeli intelligence first approached Ahmadinejad.

The New York Times reported that Iranian officials traced at least some of Ahmadinejad's contacts with Israeli intelligence to a 2023 trip to Guatemala. The following year, he traveled to Budapest to attend a climate conference at Ludovika University of Public Service.

According to the newspaper, the conference served as cover for meetings with Israeli intelligence operatives. Former US officials cited by the newspaper said then-Mossad director David Barnea personally traveled to Budapest to meet Ahmadinejad and that Mossad later informed the CIA it was in contact with him.

The newspaper also reported that Israel paid for some of Ahmadinejad's travel and accommodation and that operatives met him abroad on several occasions.

Haaretz, meanwhile, reported that Ahmadinejad formed part of a broader Israeli plan to destabilize the Islamic Republic. The plan reportedly combined influence operations inside Iran, support for Kurdish forces in Iraq and efforts to activate pressure on the government from multiple directions.

Ahmadinejad was envisioned as one possible political figure who could emerge if the system collapsed.

But the newspaper said the proposal faced considerable skepticism within Israel's own security establishment. Senior Military Intelligence officials reportedly judged the plan unlikely to succeed, while National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi is said to have dismissed parts of it as resembling "science fiction."

Cabinet ministers also questioned why Israel would seek to replace the Islamic Republic with one of its best-known former hardliners. According to Haaretz, Mossad argued that Ahmadinejad's years of conflict with the leadership had transformed him into an opposition figure.

Recruitable does not mean viable

Jason Brodsky, policy director at United Against Nuclear Iran, said it was plausible that Ahmadinejad attracted the attention of foreign intelligence services after becoming estranged from Iran's leadership.

"Do I think Ahmadinejad was a person of interest to certain foreign intelligence organizations because of his status as someone who has been burned by the Iranian leadership? Yes," Brodsky told Iran International.

"Do I believe that Mossad and other intelligence agencies were interested in talking with him? Yeah, I do."

But Brodsky drew a distinction between cultivating Ahmadinejad as a potential intelligence source and building a broader regime-change strategy around him.

"Does that mean that he was the grand Israeli regime change strategy for the Islamic Republic? Not necessarily," he said.

Brodsky argued that Ahmadinejad lacked one critical ingredient for any successful transition: support inside Iran's security establishment capable of triggering defections.

"Defections would be part of any regime change strategy," he said.

The plan falls apart

According to The New York Times, the operation reached its most dramatic point on Feb. 28, when an Israeli strike hit Ahmadinejad's compound, targeting a building used by his bodyguards and his armored vehicle.

The newspaper reported that a black Peugeot arrived shortly afterwards and that Mossad operatives extracted Ahmadinejad from the scene, transporting him to a safe house inside Iran.

US and Iranian officials cited by the newspaper said Ahmadinejad later became disillusioned with the plan to return him to power and eventually left the safe house under circumstances that remain unclear.

The broader regime-change strategy likewise failed to unfold as envisioned. According to Haaretz, plans to combine internal unrest with armed pressure from outside Iran never materialized.

Ahmadinejad resurfaced last week at Khamenei's funeral after weeks out of public view. The New York Times, citing four senior Iranian officials, reported that he is now under house arrest after Iranian authorities uncovered much of his alleged interaction with Israel. His current status has not been independently confirmed.

Why reveal it now?

The reports raise one final question: why reveal such an alleged intelligence relationship now?

"There's always a motive in this," Azizi said. "Why are they so eager to burn Ahmadinejad?"

Brodsky suggested the answer may lie partly inside Israel, pointing to rivalries between Mossad and Military Intelligence, divisions within Mossad itself and the increasingly charged political atmosphere ahead of October's elections.

Whether the allegations are ultimately borne out or not, Ahmadinejad's political trajectory is no longer in dispute. Over more than a decade he moved from one of the Islamic Republic's most loyal servants to one of its most isolated former presidents.

The question now is whether Israeli intelligence merely sought to exploit that rupture—or whether those behind the reported operation fundamentally overestimated what Ahmadinejad could ultimately deliver.

Trump said Monday that the United States would once again block ships belonging to the Islamic Republic or serving its customers from entering or leaving Iranian ports, while keeping the Strait of Hormuz open to traffic bound for other countries.

US Central Command said the blockade would take effect at 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday and apply to vessels traveling to or from Iranian ports and coastal areas. American forces would continue supporting ships in regional waters that were not violating the restrictions, CENTCOM added.

The US Navy-led Joint Maritime Information Center said the measure would cover Iran’s entire coastline, including ports and oil terminals. Neutral vessels traveling through Hormuz to non-Iranian destinations would be allowed to pass, while humanitarian shipments would be permitted after inspection.

The announcement came days after Trump informed congressional leaders that “military action commenced on July 7 against the government of the Islamic Republic.”

In his July 10 letter which was released on Monday, Trump said US forces launched “defensive strikes” after Iranian forces attacked several neutral-flagged commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. The targets included missile launch sites, air defenses, maritime military assets, military-support infrastructure and command-and-control capabilities.

Trump said no American ground forces were involved and described the attacks as limited and measured. He nevertheless said US forces remained positioned to carry out further action, indicating that the July 7 operation marked the resumption of a military campaign rather than an isolated retaliatory strike.

The notification could further intensify a dispute between the White House and Congress over Trump’s authority to continue the war without legislative approval. Both chambers have voted to direct him to end the fighting or seek congressional authorization, while the administration says the president is acting within his constitutional powers as commander in chief.

US strikes have continued since the renewed campaign began. CENTCOM said American forces used one-way attack surface drones in combat for the first time on Sunday, striking a submarine and ship-maintenance facility at the Bandar Abbas Naval Base.

Three Corsair unmanned vessels hit the facility and degraded the Islamic Republic’s ability to attack commercial shipping, according to the US military.

Explosions in southern Iran

Fresh explosions were reported Monay across southern and southeastern Iran, within a coastal zone highlighted by CENTCOM.

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The state-run Islamic Republic News Agency said the sound of four missile impacts was heard near Konarak, with the blasts also audible in Chabahar and Dashtiari.

The IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency reported six loud explosions in Chabahar and Konarak and said areas around Chabahar had been targeted by the US military in recent nights. It also reported explosions and the activation of air defenses in Bandar Abbas.

Iran’s state broadcaster later denied that explosions had occurred in Bandar Abbas, Larak and several other southern locations, contradicting earlier reports by IRNA and Tasnim. No immediate casualty figures were announced.

The confrontation also continued at sea, with Tasnim reporting that several vessels accused of violating Iranian restrictions had been targeted in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s armed forces warned they would respond forcefully to US interference with shipping and said regional governments providing logistical support to Washington could be regarded as participants in the war.

Trump, meanwhile, declared the United States the “Guardian of the Hormuz Strait” and proposed charging the equivalent of 20% of cargo shipped through the waterway, a plan rejected by the UN’s shipping agency as lacking a legal basis.

Trump also said the United States would hit Iran hard on Monday night and Tuesday, in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.

Asked about the memorandum of understanding, Trump said it had been a test for Iran and that Tehran had failed to honor it.

The relationship began taking shape in 2022 after the Mossad gathered intelligence indicating shifts in Ahmadinejad’s views, the report said.

Israel focused on his belief that Iran could not continue under sanctions and that its nuclear program had become a burden rather than an asset.

A team of Mossad agents continued a mission involving Ahmadinejad after landing abroad on October 7, 2023, and learning of the Hamas attack on Israel, according to the report.

Then-Mossad chief David Barnea personally oversaw the operation and at one point skipped a security consultation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to focus on developments involving Ahmadinejad, the report said.

By early 2026, Ahmadinejad had become one of Israel’s most significant assets and was chosen to take power after “Operation Puss in Boots,” which was intended to overthrow Iran’s government, end its pursuit of nuclear weapons and install a new leadership.

According to the report, the wider plan included influence operations inside Iran, arming and training Kurdish forces in Iraq, mobilizing minorities, recruiting collaborators and creating a land corridor for militia movements. Israel also sought to draw Azerbaijan into the war.

The plan faced opposition from Military Intelligence chief Shlomi Binder, Research Division head Ofir Mizrahi Rosen and then-national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, the report said.

Three days before H-hour, the disagreements reached such a boiling point that IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir ordered everything halted. Nevertheless, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to proceed.

The plan collapsed before Kurdish forces fired a single shot, the report said.

Ahmadinejad, a hardline conservative known for fiercely anti-Israel rhetoric, was Iran’s president from 2005 to 2013. During his two terms, he allegedly denied the Holocaust, advocated Israel’s destruction and suggested Tehran could develop nuclear weapons if it decided to do so.

After leaving office, he was repeatedly barred from standing in presidential elections. Over time, Ahmadinejad distanced himself from the political establishment and criticized the system under Ali Khamenei, accusing senior figures of corruption, mismanagement and failing the public.

He also adopted a softer public image, portraying himself as a defender of ordinary Iranians and their economic and social concerns.

Ahmadinejad’s current status is unclear. Last week, he attended a state-run funeral for slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Tehran, months after an alleged airstrike on his residence which, reportedly set him free from a house arrest.

The IRGC, the Iran-linked Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right and Russia's GRU Volunteer Corps would become the first organizations designated under the National Security (State Threats) Act 2026, which received royal assent last week.

The British government said people who support or assist the groups after they are designated could face up to 14 years in prison, while those carrying out sabotage, including arson, on their behalf could receive life sentences.

The designation is separate from proscription under Britain's terrorism legislation and is aimed at foreign state-backed activity including espionage, interference, sabotage and physical attacks.

The new powers would also allow prosecutors in some cases to bring charges without having to prove a direct connection to a foreign state, making it easier to prosecute people acting for designated organizations, the government said in a statement.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Monday his government “will never let Britain be a playground for states who want to spread fear, division and violence on our streets.”

“We have already taken tough action against the Iranian regime and those linked to it, and against Russian operatives and networks targeting our country,” he said. “These new powers will make it easier to prosecute and lock up anyone carrying out their dirty work here in Britain.”

The government said the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right had publicly claimed responsibility for seven attacks this year on locations linked to Jewish and Israeli communities and Persian-language media in Britain.

The attacks included an antisemitic arson attack that damaged four Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green, north London, on March 23.

It said members of the IRGC's Quds Force were behind the organization and had “almost certainly” directed the group's attacks across Europe.

Britain's domestic intelligence agency, MI5, identified at least 20 potentially lethal Iranian-backed plots against people in the country over a one-year period, according to the government.

“Iran and Russia are using proxies and thugs to do their dirty work on our shores,” Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said, adding that those working for the groups would be tracked down and imprisoned.

The government also plans to designate the GRU Volunteer Corps, which it described as a group controlled by Russia's military intelligence agency and used to recruit people online to carry out hostile acts including sabotage, arson and harassment.

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper called Iran and Russia’s use of proxy groups to conduct state-backed activity on British soil “reprehensible.”

“Their malign behaviour, and anyone who acts on their behalf, must be held to account,” she said. “We will take all measures necessary to protect the British people, at home and abroad.”

More than two decades after Iran adopted its Waste Management Law in 2004, large parts of the legislation remain unenforced, leaving serious shortcomings in the management of household, medical, agricultural and industrial waste, Department of Environment chief Shina Ansari said.

“Plastic waste, particularly single-use plastics, has become a serious problem for nature, coastlines, tourist areas and water resources,” Ansari said. “Studies show that microplastics are entering the food chain, water resources and even drinking water, posing a serious threat to human health and the environment.”

Plastic consumption has become a growing environmental concern in Iran, driven largely by the widespread use of shopping bags, disposable tableware, drink bottles and food packaging. A 2024 review of municipal waste found that plastics account for about 7% of Iran’s waste stream by weight.

Enforcement gaps persist

Regulations governing waste disposal and recycling exist, Ansari said, but have only been implemented sporadically, leaving many environmental problems unresolved.

A 2022 regulation intended to reduce plastic bag consumption required manufacturers to phase out bags thinner than 25 microns and imposed obligations on large retailers. Ansari said the measures, like many environmental regulations, have not been properly enforced.

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Many countries, she added, have introduced taxes, restrictions or bans on single-use plastic bags even before negotiations on a global plastics treaty are completed.

Short-lived use, long-term pollution

Around 95% of plastic bags in Iran are used only once, typically for between 12 and 20 minutes, before being discarded.

The problem is compounded by weak waste separation and recycling systems. Research on Iran’s plastic-waste sector points to gaps in regulation, enforcement, funding and technology, while informal collectors continue to play a major role in recovering valuable materials. As a result, much plastic waste is buried, openly dumped or left uncollected rather than being processed through an effective circular recycling system.

The bags can remain in the environment for 400 to 500 years before decomposing, contributing to long-term pollution of land and waterways, Ansari said.

The environmental effects are also increasingly visible. Researchers have detected microplastics in landfill areas, along Iran’s Caspian coast and in seawater, sediment and fish from the Persian Gulf.