BREAKING NEWS

Egypt says foreign powers ignored calls to fight terrorism

By REUTERS

NOVEMBER 7, 2015 12:51

Egypt criticized its foreign partners on Saturday for ignoring calls to work harder to combat terrorism, after Western intelligence sources said there were signs Islamist militants may have bombed the Russian plane which crashed in Sinai.

An Islamic State affiliate has claimed responsibility for the crash of the Airbus A321 operated by a Russian carrier that was bringing holidaymakers home from the Sinai Peninsula resort of Sharm al-Sheikh one week ago.

All 224 people on board were killed in what the militants described as revenge for Russian air strikes against Islamist fighters in Syria.

Russia, Turkey and several European countries have suspended flights to Sharm al-Sheikh and the United States has imposed new air travel security requirements in the wake of the crash.

Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, speaking hours before authorities were due to make an announcement about their investigations so far, said it would be wrong to speculate on the cause until findings were delivered.

But he said Cairo was not ruling out any possibility, and suggested countries now flagging the likelihood that militants were behind the crash should have heeded Egypt's repeated calls for coordination to combat militants.

"The spread of terrorism, which we have for a long time called on our partners to tackle more seriously, did not get through to many of the parties which are now exposed and which are currently working for the interests of their citizens to face this danger," Shoukry told a news conference.

He also expressed frustration that foreign intelligence about the cause of the crash had not been passed on to Cairo.

"The information we have heard about has not been shared with Egyptian security agencies in detail," he said. "We were expecting that the technical information would be provided to us."

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