The United Arab Emirates said that Uzbeks were arrested in connection with the murder of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi

This decision was announced on Monday by the Ministry of Interior of the United Arab Emirates, external that security authorities “have launched a preliminary investigation into three suspects arrested for the murder of Moldova resident Zvi Kogan in preparation for referring the case to the prosecutor’s office.”

It also expressed its commitment to “quickly take the necessary actions to reveal the details, circumstances and motives of the incident.”

Over the weekend, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz cited Emirati security sources that a suspected cell “directed indirectly by Iran” was responsible for the attack.

However, Iran’s embassy in the United Arab Emirates said it “categorically denies the allegations” of any Iranian involvement.

On Monday, Israeli news site Ynet reported that the killers may be linked to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas or another “terrorist organization.”

Rabbi Kogan was in the United Arab Emirates as an emissary of Chabad, which serves the religious, social and humanitarian needs of Jews around the world, and also managed a kosher supermarket in Dubai.

The rabbi was reported missing by his wife after he failed to show up at a meeting on Thursday.

Chabad said he was abducted in Dubai and taken to the border with Oman.

His car was abandoned in Al Ain, about a 90-minute drive from his home in Abu Dhabi. His body was found on Sunday morning after “security and intelligence agencies from multiple countries coordinated an intensive investigation to locate him,” he added.

In a speech on Sunday at the beginning of the Israeli government’s weekly cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to track down the rabbi’s killers.

“The State of Israel will use all means and deal with these murderers and those who sent them to the fullest extent of the law. None of them will escape,” he said.

Moldova’s President Maia Sandu said her country mourns the “tragic loss” of Rabbi Kogan and “strongly condemns this hateful act.”

“Our thoughts are with his family, the Jewish community and all those who mourn,” she said.

Yousef Al Otaiba, the UAE ambassador to the US, said: “The murder of Zvi Kogan was more than a crime in the UAE – it was a crime against the UAE. It was an attack on our homeland, on our values ​​and on our vision.”