Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry has accused unnamed countries of failing to share intelligence relating to the crash of the Russian Metrojet plane a week ago.<\/p>\n
The US and the UK have both said intelligence points to the strong possibility it was caused by a bomb.<\/p>\n
The UK halted flights to Sharm el-Sheikh and is repatriating tourists.<\/p>\n
The Airbus 321 came down in the Sinai Peninsula killing all 224 on board shortly after leaving the resort.<\/p>\n
“We are the party that is the most closely connected to the issue,” Mr Shoukry said.<\/p>\n
“We expected that the information provided on a technical level would be provided to us on a technical level, instead of it being released to the media in this public manner.”<\/p>\n
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“Egypt is co-operating to reassure these countries that the [security] measures adopted in Egyptian airports conform to international standards,” he added.<\/p>\n
Mr Shoukry also criticised a failure to co-operate in fighting terrorism, accusing some countries of “concentrating on their self-interests” and underestimating the terrorism challenges facing Egypt.<\/p>\n
The UK ambassador to Egypt, John Casson, said he had personally been in close contact with the Egyptian government round the clock.<\/p>\n
“We’ve made all the information available and we explained to them the basis for our decision-making,” he told the BBC.<\/p>\n
The UK announced on 5 November that it was suspending flights and working to bring its citizens home after reviewing airport security at Sharm el-Sheikh.<\/p>\n
Most of the victims of the crash were Russian. Russia said on Friday it was suspending flights to Egypt as a whole and recommending its holidaymakers – numbering some 80,000 – return home.<\/p>\n
Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said on Saturday that 10 flights carrying returning Russians had already left Egypt.<\/p>\n
French aviation officials familiar with the investigation told the BBC the crash was not caused by a technical failure. Other French officials said the flight data recorder suggested the cause was a “violent, sudden” explosion.<\/p>\n
French investigators are involved because France is one of several countries with shareholdings in Airbus, the plane’s manufacturer.<\/p>\n
‘Celebrating’<\/strong><\/p>\n Militants known as Sinai Province and linked to the Islamic State group (IS) say they downed the plane, but have not said how.<\/p>\n IS has called for a war against both Russia and the US over their air strikes in Syria.<\/p>\n The American network NBC, quoting unnamed US officials, said on Friday that communications had been intercepted between IS officials in Syria and people in Sinai about how the jet had been brought down.<\/p>\n “They were clearly celebrating,” NBC quoted the official as saying.<\/p>\n Other countries to have restricted travel to Sharm el-Sheikh include Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.<\/p>\n The US has announced it is stepping up security screening of items on US-bound flights from some airports in the Middle East. The Homeland Security statementdid not say which airports it was targeting.<\/p>\n Tourism contributed more than 12% to Egypt’s economy in 2013 and the latest measures will hit it hard, analysts say. One in five foreign tourists in Egypt is Russian.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry has accused unnamed countries of failing to share intelligence relating to the crash of the Russian Metrojet plane a week ago. The US and the UK have both said intelligence points to the strong possibility it was caused by a bomb. The UK halted flights to Sharm el-Sheikh and is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":165242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[14],"yoast_head":"\n