The UK government suspended all flights to and from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh Wednesday after US and UK officials said they believe the Russian plane that crashed over the Sinai peninsula may have been brought down by a bomb.
Britain’s foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, said there was a “significant possibility” that an explosive device caused the crash of a Russian plane in Egypt last weekend, the strongest remarks yet by an official on the cause of the crash.
Hammond said Britain is "advising against all but essential travel by air through Sharm el-Sheikh airport. That means that there will be no UK passenger flights out to Sharm el-Sheikh from now”.
Ireland announced similar measures shortly afterwards, while German airline Lufthansa also said that it was suspending all flights to and from the airport “due to the current situation in the Sinai Peninsula”.
Hammond’s statement came just hours before CNN reported on Wednesday that, according to an unnamed US official, the plane was most likely brought down by a bomb planted by Islamic State (IS) militants or their Sinai-based affiliate, the Sinai Province.
Two US officials and one European official also told Reuters that intelligence reporting is leaning towards terrorism as a cause of the crash, which killed all 224 people on board, but cautioned there was no conclusive proof yet.
The IS group, which controls swathes of Iraq and Syria and is battling the Egyptian army in the Sinai peninsula, said again on Wednesday it brought down the plane, adding it would eventually give details on how it carried out the attack.
Egypt dismisses IS group claim
Hammond's remarks came as Britain prepares to host a visit by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi this week.
Egypt, a close ally of the United States and the most populous Arab country, has dismissed claims of responsibility for the crash by the IS group.
An Egyptian official close to the team investigating the black boxes told Reuters that the cause of the crash “is believed to be an explosion but what kind is not clear”.
“There are forensic investigations under way at the crash site. That will help determine the cause, to see if traces of explosives are found,” the source said.
President Sisi has described Islamist militancy as an existential threat to the Arab world and the West and has repeatedly called for greater international efforts to combat the militants.
But Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry criticised remarks by Cameron on Wednesday when the British PM said “the plane may well have been brought down by an explosive device”.
Shoukry told CNN he was “somewhat surprised” by the statement.
“This is a matter for the investigation to clarify and we should not prejudge or take any measures that might have implications,” he said.
‘Stowed object’ on board?
There was a similar reaction from the Kremlin, with Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, saying that any theories as to the cause of the crash are pure speculation at this point.
“We have said this before and we will repeat it again: theories about what happened and the causes of the incident can only be pronounced by the investigation,” said Peskov, when asked about Hammond’s comments.
“So far, we have heard nothing (like this) from the investigation. Any kind of similar assumptions like this are based on information that has not been checked or are speculation.”
A Russian aviation official said the investigation was looking into the possibility of an object stowed on board causing the disaster.
“There are two versions now under consideration: something stowed inside (the plane) and a technical fault. But the airplane could not just break apart in the air – there should be some action. A rocket is unlikely as there are no signs of that,” the Russian official said.
Security experts and investigators have said the plane is unlikely to have been struck from the outside and Sinai-based militants are not believed to possess the technology to shoot down a jet from a cruising altitude above 30,000 feet.
UK ambassador to the United Nations Matthew Rycroft told FRANCE 24 on Wednesday that the Security Council, of which both the UK and Russia are permanent members, “stands ready to take forward action" if evidence reveals that the jet was bombed, but didn’t give any further details.
Blow to tourist industry
Any evidence that a bomb knocked the plane out of the sky would deal a heavy blow to tourism in Egypt, a pillar of the economy that is struggling to recover after years of political turmoil, and would also undermine Sisi’s assertions that Cairo has brought the Sinai Province insurgency under control.
Britain said it was working with airlines and Egyptian authorities to put in place additional security and screening measures to allow Britons in Sharm el-Sheikh to get home, but that would take time and there would be no flights returning from the resort on Thursday.
Sinai Province has said it had brought down the airliner “in response to Russian air strikes that killed hundreds of Muslims on Syrian land”.
“We, with God’s grace, are the ones who brought it down, and we are not obliged to disclose the mechanism of its demise,” a speaker said in an audio message posted on Twitter.
Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, launched air raids against opposition groups in Syria including the IS group on September 30. The hardline group has called for war against both Russia and the United States in response to their air strikes in Syria.
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