US hostage affairs envoy Adam Boehler has made contact with Iraqi officials in recent days regarding Elizabeth Tsurkov [Getty]
The US has formally asked Iraq to secure the release of kidnapped Israeli academic Elizabeth Tsurkov, threatening political and economic consequences if she is not freed, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported on Monday.
Citing two Iraqi officials in Baghdad, The New Arab‘s Arabic-language sister service said the Trump administration had requested the case be resolved “as soon as possible”.
Tsurkov, a dual Israeli-Russian national, was kidnapped in March 2023 in Baghdad’s Karrada neighbourhood. While no group has taken responsibility for her abduction, it is believed she was taken captive by the Kataib Hezbollah faction.
The officials said that the government, with the help of Shia political leaders, has resumed efforts to secure Tsurkov’s release.
The official request comes weeks after warnings posted to social media by US President Donald Trump’s hostage affairs envoy, Adam Boehler, who accused Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani of making “false promises”. Boehler said in February that Sudani would be considered complicit if Tsurkov is not immediately released.
A video of her speaking and ‘confessing’ to being an Israeli spy was aired on Iraqi television in November 2023, but little information has been released about her condition or whereabouts.
Last month, Israeli journalist Barak Ravid reported that Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein had assured him that Tsurkov was still alive and Prime Minister Sudani was doing all he could to secure her release.
A senior Iraq official told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that Boehler had sent direct messages to Iraqi officials, most notably Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani. The official, who asked not to be named, confirmed that the Boehler had “threatened a package of US punitive measures against Iraq, political and economic”.
Another official on Iraq’s National Security Council said that “Washington is now the negotiator for Tsurkov’s release, not Israel”.
The official revealed that the Iraqi government and Shia political leaders have resumed efforts towards Kataib Hezbollah, saying that Baghdad has “been making real and important efforts in this file for months, but the kidnappers are not responding in any way, and their goal is not a financial ransom, which makes the case difficult”.
In February, Lebanese and Iraqi media reports said that Tsurkov’s captors were seeking a prisoner swap involving jailed members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group.
