Kidnapped Princeton student’s family seeks terror tag for Iraq

Jay Solomon
·4 min read
4

The News

The family of a Princeton graduate student kidnapped last year by an Iranian-backed militia in Baghdad called on the Biden administration to designate Iraq as a state sponsor of terrorism for allegedly failing to work for the release of Elizabeth Tsurkov.

Tsurkov, a Russian-Israeli scholar and journalist, entered Iraq in January 2023 to conduct field research for her Ph.D. dissertation on sectarian politics in the Middle East. The 37-year-old was abducted two months later by Kata’ib Hezbollah, an Iraqi militia that’s funded by Tehran but whose political wing forms a part of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani’s government.

His office announced in November that it had launched a formal investigation into Tsurkov’s disappearance. But it hasn’t disclosed any findings from the probe, and Tsurkov’s family accused the Iraqi leader on Thursday of refusing to pressure Kata’ib Hezbollah to release the student.

“I am calling on Secretary of State Blinken to use his legal authority to declare Iraq a state sponsor of terrorism – just like its neighbors, Iran and Syria,” Tsurkov’s sister, Emma Tsurkov, said at a protest staged outside Iraq’s embassy in Washington. “The U.S. is sending hundreds of millions of dollars each year to Iraq. We have a right to expect them to not fund terrorists who are targeting U.S.-based researchers and journalists.”

Iraq’s embassy didn’t respond to a request for comment from Semafor. The State Department has said that it’s closely tracking Tsurkov’s situation, but declined to comment further. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in July issued a statement demanding Kata’ib Hezbollah release the dual-national student.

Kata’ib Hezbollah in November released a proof-of-life video of Tsurkov in which she mentioned Israel’s war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas. But she also appeared to be coerced into saying she was working for the CIA and Israel’s spy service, Mossad – a charge her family and the U.S. and Israeli governments deny.

Emma Tsurkov said she’s been unable to establish any direct line to Kata’ib Hezbolah, and that Iraq’s government has refused to serve as a mediator. “You have been given the benefit of the doubt and your grace period is over. You have done nothing but mislead, misdirect, and gaslight my family,” Tsurkov said of Sudani’s administration. “You will get no peace or quiet until my sister is home.”


Jay’s view

Elizabeth Tsurkov is the second Princeton graduate student kidnapped by Iran and its proxies over the past decade. But her Russian-Israeli nationality, and the U.S.’s military partnership with Iraq, risks complicating efforts to secure her release.

The Pentagon maintains a forward base in western Iraq from which it’s launched missions against the Islamic State (ISIS), the terrorist organization that gained control of large swathes of the Arab country beginning in 2014. But Kata’ib Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed militias have attacked the base, as well as U.S. military facilities in neighboring Syria, in an effort to force Washington to withdraw its personnel. These strikes have escalated since Hamas launched its terrorist assault on southern Israel last October. The Pentagon has charged Kata’ib Hezbollah of overseeing a January drone attack on Jordan that killed three U.S. military personnel stationed there.

The Biden administration and Sudani’s government have been holding negotiations over whether to maintain the U.S. troop presence in Iraq. In this environment, the White House has appeared reluctant to pressure Baghdad over Tsurkov, her family says. They say the administration has been cautioning U.S. lawmakers against aggressively criticizing Baghdad.

Sudani is expected to visit Washington next month, and Emma Tsurkov pressed the Biden administration on Thursday to use it as leverage to gain her sister’s release. “What is the point of having power if you do not exercise it to protect the values you believe in?” she said.

The first Princeton student kidnapped by Iran, Wang Xiyue, was held in Tehran’s Evin Prison from 2016-2019. He was released as part of a prisoner exchange negotiated by the Trump administration and Tehran.


The View From Baghdad

Sudani’s government, in November, pledged to aggressively investigate Tsurkov’s abduction and get her home. “The security services are still following the case of the disappearance of the Russian citizen in Baghdad and are sparing no effort to find any leads leading to the kidnapped person,” Husham al-Rikabi, a communications adviser to the prime minister, told AFP. “We hope soon [to find] leads or evidence that will lead the competent authorities to her.”

Leaders of Kata’ib Hezbollah, an arm of Iran’s most powerful military unit, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, have described her abduction as an important step in their battle against the U.S. and Israel.


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