Senior US official dismisses reports of breakthrough in talks to free Israeli hostage in Iraq

There is no breakthrough for a deal to free Israeli-Russian academic Elizabeth Tsurkov, who was kidnapped two years ago in Baghdad, a senior official in the US government tells the Walla news site.

The official says that Washington will not agree to the release of an Iranian national who killed an American in Iraq in exchange for the hostage, dismissing reports in Arab media of such a deal.

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