Baghdad (Union)
The Iraqi government has opened an investigation related to the kidnapping of an Israeli-Russian researcher in the country, according to government spokesman Basem Al-Awadi, after Israel accused an Iraqi faction of being responsible for her disappearance. Al-Awadi said in televised remarks, in response to a question about the Israeli-Russian researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov: “The Iraqi government is actually conducting an official investigation.”
Al-Awadi added, “Since this issue is at this level, and therefore overlapping, there is no official statement in this regard until the Iraqi government completes its official investigations and reaches results.” Last Wednesday, the Israeli Prime Minister’s office held Iraqi militias responsible for this case, saying that Elisabeth Tsurkov, the Israeli-Russian citizen who disappeared a few months ago in Iraq, is being held by the militias.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office added in its statement that Elizabeth Tsurkov is alive. Tsurkov arrived in Baghdad in early January 2022 with a Russian passport, according to a Western diplomat in Iraq. On her personal website, Tsurkov says she speaks English, Hebrew, Russian and Arabic. Her website adds that she is a fellow at the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, and a research fellow at the Forum for Regional Thinking, an Israeli-Palestinian think tank based in Jerusalem.
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