Elizabeth Tsurkov: Iran eyes prisoner swap with Israel, says Saudi media

Elizabeth Tsurkov, 36, has been allegedly kidnapped by one of the Iranian-backed militias, dubbed Kata'ib Hezbollah, in the Iraqi capital Baghdad in late March.

Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Russian-Israeli academic, has been missing in Iraq since late March. (Photo: Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy/AFP)
Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Russian-Israeli academic, has been missing in Iraq since late March. (Photo: Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy/AFP)

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Tehran and Tel Aviv officials are in negotiation over the release of a Russian-Israeli researcher who had gone missing in Iraq since late March, as Iran seeks to pressure the Jewish state for a prisoner swap, according to a Saudi media report.

Elizabeth Tsurkov, 36, has been allegedly kidnapped by one of the Iranian-backed militias, dubbed Kata'ib Hezbollah, in the Iraqi capital Baghdad in late March.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has recently said the US Princeton University researcher has been abducted by the militia force, which is part of the Iraqi-government-sanctioned Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an umbrella organization for a multitude of mainly Shiite militias.

Tel Aviv and Tehran are in negotiation over the release of the doctoral student, Saudi Asharq Al-Awsat reported on Sunday, citing informed sources within the PMF.

Through Russian mediation, Iran has pressured Israel since June to release an Iranian detainee, named Youssef Shahbazi Abbasalilo, who had been in Tel Aviv’s custody over an alleged assassination plot against Israelis in Cyprus, according to the media’s sources.

News of her alleged abduction had been withheld by her family until recently in the hope of reaching a settlement with the researcher’s captors.

The Iraqi government has launched an investigation into the manner, spokesman Bassim Al-Awadi has recently said in a presser, without elaborating further details. 

In order to work on her Ph.D. dissertation, Tsurkov entered Iraq on her Russian passport, since Israel and Iraq do not have any diplomatic ties and view each other as hostile countries, Western media reports.