Washington DC, May 20 -- US officials have revealed that an early objective of the war with Iran involved an ambitious regime-change strategy centred on reinstating former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the country's leader, according to The New York Times report.

The news report stated that after strikes killed Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, US President Donald Trump publicly suggested that it would be preferable if "someone from within" Iran assumed power.

The plan, reportedly developed by Mossad (the national intelligence and covert operations agency of Israel) in consultation with Ahmadinejad, aimed to use the former hard-line Iranian president despite his past rhetoric calling to "wipe Israel off the map."

While Ahm...