CHICAGO — An American woman held in Iran for more than 13 months and accused of espionage said she hopes to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad while he is in New York this week to attend the annual General Assembly of the United Nations.
Sarah Shourd, who was detained with two other Americans while hiking near the border of Iraq and Iran in January 2009, said on a Thursday episode of the "The Oprah Winfrey Show" that she wants the Iranian leader to know she has "no animosity towards him or towards any Iranian people."
"There's just no reason for animosity," Shourd said. "In a situation like this, I don't know who's making the decisions. I don't know why what happened to us happened ... there's no feeling of blame or anger. There's just a strong desire for it to be over so we can go on with our lives."
