UNITED NATIONS. Sept 26: There was a pandemonium at the press conference held by the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday. It was infiltrated by Israeli lobbyists, diplomats and interests.
“Basically, UN security failed to check the credentials of those who were allowed to attend the press conference,” said one senior reporters.
“Was it deliberate or was it a set-up”? asked many journalists.
A spokesman for the UN Secretary General conceded that there was breakdown in security measures and promised an investigation into the incident.
In one case, an Israeli women with diplomatic credentials entered the press briefing. She was recognised as she sought the whereabouts of her relatives who had disappeared during the Israel-Lebanon war. Mr Ahmadinejad reused to answer her questions and there were impromptu protests and shouts in her favour.
Senior western UN Press members who claim that many reporters from the Middle East make statements instead of asking questions were at a loss to say anything.
Why such double standards when it comes to Israel, asked one reporter, reflecting : “If any Palestinian sisters, wives or mothers had barged into a press conference of the Israeli Prime Minister “all hell would have broken lose.” The American media brandishing her as a hero and she has made appearance on Fox News and CNN television news programmes. Meanwhile, UN spokesperson Maria Okabe said that the breach at the press conference would be investigated.
