New Delhi, July 14 -- Following the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the long-time Supreme Leader of Iran, on February 28, in the opening hours of the US-Israeli war on Tehran, there is still uncertainty about who is in charge of the Islamic Republic. While Ali Khamenei's son, Mojtaba Khamenei, was appointed as the new Supreme Leader of Iran, he has not been seen in public, and there is growing speculation that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is in control of the country amid the war.

But if Israel had had its way, Iran would now have been ruled by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former president of the Islamic Republic, a New York Times report has claimed. According to the report, Israel was involved in a multi-year effort to recruit and...