Goldwasser recounts confrontation with Ahmadinejad
Wife of kidnapped IDF soldier Ehud Goldwasser tells Ynet of Iranian president's reaction to her question 'why don't you allow Red Cross to visit captives?' at New York press conference, saying, 'Now he knows I can reach him too, he does not scare us'
"During the questions we made eye contact, we looked at each other more than once. The look on his face changed the moment he realized who was facing him and what I wanted from him," Karnit Goldwasser, wife of kidnapped soldier Ehud Goldwasser, said after her meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in New York.
Goldwasser managed to enter Ahmadinejad's press conference at the United Nations building in New York on Tuesday, and told Ynet that the she was surprised by the treatment the Iranian leader received upon his arrival.
"He came in and started to smile at everyone. The reporters gave him great respect… As he walked by me he said hi to me, because he still didn't know who I was. He thought I was one of the supporting journalists, and that he was walking into a place where everyone loved him. He seemed very pleased," Goldwasser recounted.
Goldwasser said she was not afraid to present the president with her question, and asked him, "Hello, my name is Karnit, the wife of Ehud Goldwasser, the soldier who has been held captive for over a year. Since you are the man that is behind the kidnapping due to the aid you grant Hizbullah, why don't you allow the Red Cross to visit the two soldiers?" she asked.
The president ignored the question.
Goldwasser being escorted out of press conference (photo: Shachar Ezran)
"Now he knows that the kidnapped soldier's wife can reach him too," Goldwasser told Ynet, "he knows that he does not scare us."
Not carrying the proper press pass, Goldwasser was escorted by security out of the room towards the end of the press conference.
"I wanted to pass out pictures of the captives to the reporters in the back rows, but they took me out," she said.
Despite the incident, Goldwasser said she did not resent the security guards. "They were only doing their job," she said, adding that she appealed to one of the guards. "I told an officer that this man would decide whether my husband will come home and that this is the man that can, within a second, solve the conflict. I am sure it did something to his heart when he heard that."
