American newspaper: Al-Sudani considered Tsurkov’s release a gift to Trump
American newspaper: Al-Sudani considered Tsurkov’s release a gift to Trump
2025-09-11 01:37
Shafaq News – Special Translation
The Wall Street Journal reported that Israeli-Russian citizen Elizabeth Tsurkov, who was kidnapped in Baghdad two years ago and suddenly released two days ago, remains unidentified. However, according to US sources, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani sent a letter to President Donald Trump, saying that Tsurkov’s release was a “gift to him.”
The newspaper quoted an unidentified senior US official as saying that al-Sudani sent a message to Trump, saying that the release of Tsurkov, a student at Princeton University, was important. Al-Sudani did not address this message in his social media post on Tuesday, but he emphasized that Tsurkov’s release was the culmination of the efforts of his country’s security services.
The US report noted that Emma Tsurkov, Elizabeth’s sister, who holds US citizenship, waged an intensive campaign to draw attention to her plight, and appealed to the Iraqi Prime Minister during one of his visits to Washington to do more to help secure her sister’s release.
She also consulted with U.S. Special Envoy Adam Boehler and Global Reach, a Washington-based organization that works to repatriate Americans detained in foreign countries.
According to the report, “hostage diplomacy” has caused increasing difficulties for the United States over the past decade, as several countries hostile to Washington, particularly Iran, Russia, and Venezuela, have detained American citizens in exchange for people, money, or other concessions, often through high-level swaps involving those countries’ intelligence and security agencies.
The report indicated that the circumstances that led to Tsurkov’s release were unclear.
He noted that Boehler had traveled to Iraq earlier this year to seek assistance from the Sudanese prime minister, who was keen to maintain American support for fear that ISIS would once again threaten the Iraqi state.
The report continued, saying that securing Tsurkov’s release was not easy. Michael Knights, a researcher at Horizon Engage, quoted the report as saying that the group that held Tsurkov is one of the best-funded Iraqi militias and has close ties to the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, referring to Kata’ib Hezbollah.
The report noted that, after months of negotiations with the United States, Venezuela released 10 Americans in July in exchange for 250 Venezuelans held in El Salvador.
He added that the United States increased pressure on Friday when Trump signed an executive order enabling the United States to punish countries and terrorist groups that hold Americans captive with strict sanctions and travel bans, a new tool aimed at combating the practice of “hostage diplomacy.”
According to the report, there are currently approximately 25 Americans being held in six countries: Iraq, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iran, Russia, and Venezuela. The United States is giving these countries a one-month grace period to release the Americans they are holding before they face sanctions under the new resolution, according to State Department officials.
“For us, the goal is to end hostage diplomacy in general,” Boehler was quoted as saying in the report, adding that he hoped Tsurkov’s release would “set a model for other countries, including Hamas, to bring all hostages home and never hold any Americans hostage again.”
The report noted that Tsurkov’s ordeal ended last Tuesday, when she suddenly appeared near the US embassy in Baghdad, bearing the scars of her 903 days in captivity.
shafaq.com
