IC Operations & Tradecraft — 2026-07-08

Former Israeli Intelligence Officials Reveal Mossad-CIA Joint Regime-Change Plan Included Kurdish Ground Invasion of Iran

BLUFCompeting anonymous blame narratives from Israeli and American intelligence officials signal that both services are positioning for political fallout from a failed Iran strategy rather than preparing a revised one.

Several newly retired senior Israeli intelligence officials told SpyTalk that a Mossad-led regime-change plan against Iran, developed jointly with the CIA after the June 2025 war, included a proposed ground invasion by Iranian and Iraqi Kurdish forces armed and trained by Israeli and American advisers, under Israeli and US air cover 1. The former officials said the plan also called for Mossad and CIA influence operations intended to incite popular uprisings against the Tehran government 1. One former official, speaking anonymously, said Israeli strategic teams held months of meetings with senior CIA counterparts who reviewed and countered nearly every proposal 1. The officials' account contests a Trump administration narrative in which CIA Director John Ratcliffe rejected major elements of the plan as "farcical," asserting instead that the CIA was a full partner in the planning from its outset 1.

Analysis
The dispute over who owns the Kurdish invasion plan is less about history than about blame allocation as the war's failure to unseat Tehran or reopen Hormuz becomes politically costly. Israeli officials speaking anonymously are working to shift responsibility for a plan that did not deliver regime change onto a CIA now distancing itself from failure. Washington's account, crediting Ratcliffe with rejecting "farcical" elements, protects the administration from ownership of an operation that left Iran controlling the strait. Neither side has produced documentary evidence, so the contest plays out entirely through competing anonymous narratives aimed at domestic and allied audiences.

1 sources

Israelis Offer New Details on Joint Regime-Change Strategy and Mossad-CIA plan for Kurdish Invasion - SpyTalk