US Approval Key to Potential Iraq-Iran Hostage Swap Involving Israeli-Russian Academic
"The Americans have not yet agreed to one of the conditions, which is the release of the Iranian who is being held for killing an American citizen," one Iraqi official told AFP, noting that the outcome depends entirely on Washington’s green light.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) — Iraq is seeking to broker a sensitive prisoner swap with Iran involving the release of kidnapped Israeli-Russian academic Elizabeth Tsurkov in exchange for an Iranian national jailed in Iraq for murdering a U.S. citizen, according to security sources cited by AFP on Saturday.
Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Princeton University doctoral student, was abducted in Baghdad in March 2023. While no group has officially claimed responsibility, Israel has accused the powerful Iran-backed Kataeb Hezbollah militia of detaining her—an allegation the group has ambiguously denied.
According to senior Iraqi security officials who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity due to the delicacy of the negotiations, the proposed swap hinges on U.S. approval. The Iranian national at the center of the potential deal was convicted alongside four Iraqis for the November 2022 killing of American aid worker Stephen Troell in Baghdad.
"The Americans have not yet agreed to one of the conditions, which is the release of the Iranian who is being held for killing an American citizen," one Iraqi official told AFP, noting that the outcome depends entirely on Washington’s green light.
Tsurkov is believed to have entered Iraq using her Russian passport as part of her academic fieldwork. Concerns have mounted over her whereabouts and condition since her disappearance, with some Iraqi and diplomatic sources suggesting she may have been transferred to Iran.
In November 2023, Iraqi broadcaster Al Rabiaa TV aired what it said was the first hostage video of Tsurkov since her abduction. AFP was unable to independently authenticate the footage or confirm whether she was speaking freely.
The Iranian prisoner Iraq hopes to release is Mohammad Reza Nouri, alleged by the U.S. Justice Department to be an officer in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). In December 2023, the U.S. unsealed a complaint charging Nouri with orchestrating Troell’s assassination, intensifying tensions over Iranian proxy activity in Iraq.
A Tense Balancing Act
The proposed exchange underscores the delicate diplomatic tightrope Baghdad continues to walk, as a close partner of both Tehran and Washington. Iraq often finds itself mediating between its two major allies, whose competing regional agendas frequently play out on Iraqi soil.
Troell’s killing drew strong condemnation from Washington and sparked U.S. calls for accountability. His death and the subsequent conviction of the perpetrators marked one of the most high-profile attacks on an American civilian in Iraq in recent years.
Now, with Tsurkov’s fate still uncertain and tensions surrounding her captivity unresolved, Iraq’s quiet diplomatic efforts reflect its attempt to defuse an increasingly complicated geopolitical standoff—one that spans three nations and involves intelligence, militias, and the shifting terrain of Middle East alliances.
