Israel and Iran negotiating for release of Elizabeth Tsurkov - report

Sources in the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces say the Iranians are pressuring the Israelis for a prisoner exchange, mediating through Russia

Negotiations between Israel and Iran were underway for the release of Israeli-Russian academic Elizabeth Tsurkov, sources in the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) paramilitary group told the al-Sharq Alavest newspaper on Sunday. 

Officials in Iran have since June pressured Israel, through the mediation of Russia, to release an Iranian detainee, claimed sources from the PMF, which is an umbrella military organization that includes the Kataib Hezbollah. 

The Iranian operative Youssef Shahbazi Abbasalilo was captured by Israel’s Mossad spy agency in June, as the leader of an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp terror plot to kill Israelis in Cyprus. 

The local Iranian-funded militia, the Iraqi national security apparatus, and the members of the parliament in Iraq, have told al-Sharq Alavest that Iran was using the abduction of Tsurkov, who was taken some time in March, to bolster its efforts to negotiate for the release of Shahbazi.

A source close to the armed factions in Baghdad clarified that the Israeli-Russian academic from Princeton University was being held by the Iraqi Kataib Hezbollah brigade in Iraq, at the request of Iran. Contradictory claims were given by other sources, saying Tsurkov was transferred to Tehran.

Tsurkov’s sister, Emma, spokes to i24NEWS, raising hope for a “collaboration between the Israeli, Russian and American governments,” in the negotiations to release the PhD student. She stated the trip to Iraq was for “purely academic purposes,” adding that Elizabeth “was convinced that this was not research that could be done remotely.”

Basem Al-Awadi, spokesman for the government in Iraq, spoke on Friday to a local TV channel Al-Ahd about Tsurkov, saying "given the level of the case, its intricacies, there will be no official statement regarding this matter until the Iraqi government completes its official investigation.”