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UAE Official Visits Mourning Family of Murdered Chabad Rabbi in Israel
Dr Ali Rashid Al Nuaimi flew to Israel to pay a shiva call to the family of Rabbi Zvi Kogan in Kfar Chabad on Nov. 29, 2024. Photo: Provided by Chabad
A senior official from the United Arab Emirates traveled to Israel on Friday to attend the shiva of Chabad-Lubavitch emissary Rabbi Zvi Kogan, who was recently killed in a suspected terror attack in the UAE.
Dr. Ali Rashid Al Nuaimi visited family members of Kogan in Kfar Chabad who are observing the Jewish mourning period that takes place after the burial of a family member. Nuaimi is the chairman of the Manara Center for Coexistence and Dialogue, which is based in Abu Dhabi, and also a member of the UAE Federal National Council, where he chairs the Defense Affairs, Interior, and Foreign Affairs Committee.
During his visit to Israel, Nuaimi condemned the attack that targeted Kogan and reiterated the UAE’s commitment to coexistence and peace.
“The UAE will never allow extremists to divide us,” he said. “The state and its citizens are more committed than ever to the values of openness and peace and will increase their efforts to ensure that Rabbi Zvi’s legacy continues and that all communities live in harmony in the UAE.”
An Israeli-Moldovan national, Kogan, 28, had lived in the UAE for several years. He was an emissary for the Chabad branch in Abu Dhabi and ran a kosher supermarket in the UAE. He was reported missing from a location about an hour and a half from Dubai on Nov. 21, and his body was found by UAE intelligence and security services three days later. He was murdered by terrorists after being abducted, according to Chabad.
The Emirati Ministry of Interior said last week that it had identified and arrested in the UAE three citizens from Uzbekistan as suspects in Kogan’s murder: Olimpi Toirovich, 28, Makhmudjon Abdurakhim, also 28, and Azizbek Kamlovich, 33.
Officials in the UAE said they have not established a motive for Kogan’s murder, but the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a joint announcement that Kogan was murdered in “a heinous act of antisemitic terrorism.” Israel’s President Isaac Herzog also condemned the “vile antisemitic attack.”
Iran has been accused of being involved in Kogan’s murder, but Iran’s embassy in Abu Dhabi has rejected the accusation.
The post UAE Official Visits Mourning Family of Murdered Chabad Rabbi in Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Moves Patriot Missile Batteries from South Korea to Middle East
A Patriot missile battery. Photo: IDF.
i24 News – American Patriot missile defense batteries will be moved from South Korea to the Middle East, according to reports in Asian media on Friday, amid speculation over a potential military action against Iran’s nuclear program and escalating bombardments of Iran-backed jihadists in Yemen.
US President Donald Trump threatened Iran on Sunday with bombing and secondary tariffs if Tehran did not come to an agreement with Washington over its nuclear program, and the United States has moved additional warplanes into the region.
Washington and Seoul have reportedly recently agreed on the “monthslong” partial deployment of the Patriot Advanced Capability-3, in what is understood to be the first known case involving the relocation of United States Forces Korea (USFK) assets to the Middle East.
Iran in recent years has largely dropped the pretense of enriching uranium for a civilian atomic energy program, as it’s reportedly teetering on the nuclear precipice. Israel believes that a nuclear Iran represents a grave existential threat, consistent with the exterminationist antisemitism of the Islamic Republic’s anti-Israel rhetoric.
After the election of Trump, a known Iran hawk, the likelihood of an U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities has increased precipitously.
The post US Moves Patriot Missile Batteries from South Korea to Middle East first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Report: Iranian Plot to Assassinate Azerbaijani Rabbi Foiled
The Azerbaijani capital of Baku. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
i24 News – Iran enlisted the services of a Georgian drug trafficker to carry out an assassination of a prominent Azerbaijani rabbi, the Washington Post reported Saturday, citing security officials.
The plot to murder Rabbi Shneor Segal, foiled by the State Security Service of Azerbaijan in early January, also involved a plan to attack a Jewish education center, the officials said.
The plot was set in motion by an officer with Iran’s Quds Force, who met with Georgian criminal Agil Aslanov, handing him a photo of Segal and detailed instructions on how to murder him, the officials cited by WaPo said. Aslanov’s fee for the foiled hit was $200,000.
The State Security Service said the two men “worked to collect information about a member of a religious community, and sent the location of his residence and workplace to a representative of a foreign special service agency via the appropriate mobile phone application.”
Iran is known to be behind multiple plots against Israeli and Jewish targets, many of which have been foiled by Israeli and foreign security services.
However a recent plot saw three citizens of Uzbekistan murder an Israeli rabbi in the United Arab Emirates on Iranian orders. The three were sentenced to death earlier this week for the murder of Zvi Kogan in November.
The post Report: Iranian Plot to Assassinate Azerbaijani Rabbi Foiled first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Netanyahu to Depart for Washington on Sunday Directly from Hungary to Meet with Trump
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem, Feb. 16, 2025. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will depart to Washington DC on Sunday directly from Hungary—where he is presently on an official visit—to meet with US President Donald Trump, i24NEWS learned on Saturday from an Israeli source.
The visit comes following a phone conversation between the leaders on Friday, and a call with State Secretary Marco Rubio a short while ago.
As a result, the planned visit to Washington of Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz will be postponed once again.
Topics of discussion between the two leaders are expected to include the possible military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities, the Gaza war and the future of the war-ravaged Palestinian enclave, the US bombing campaign against Iran-backed Houthi jihadists in Yemen, and the recent imposition of tariffs on Israeli products.
The post Netanyahu to Depart for Washington on Sunday Directly from Hungary to Meet with Trump first appeared on Algemeiner.com.