India, May 20 -- When US President Donald Trump said during the early period of the war with Iran that he would prefer someone from within the country to take over after regime change in Tehran, many names floated as possibilities, including parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.

But according to a report by the New York Times, the early US-Israeli plan was to install Iran's hardline former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the country's new leader, a truly surprising name given his anti-Israel and anti-US stance in the past.

The report said that Ahmadinejad was even consulted before the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28, killing its then Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Even Ahmadinejad's home was struck...