Egypt to release preliminary report on plane investigation: Russian agency

Ahmed Abbas
4 Min Read
Following the Russian plane crash in Sinai, fears have been reignited that Egypt’s barely-recovering tourism industry has taken another major blow – especially as the crash comes just two months after Mexican tourists were accidentally targeted and killed by the Egyptian armed forces. Photo Mayada Abu Al-Nader

The Russian Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) said Egypt will release a preliminary report on the investigations of the Russian plane crash in Sinai, according to Russian news agency Interfax.

The joint investigation committee previously announced that “all possibilities are on the table”.

The Russian Federal Security Service announced last week that traces of an explosive material were found in the wreckage.

Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry said Egypt is dealing with the accident with full transparency to uncover the reason behind the downing of the plane.

Investigations into the terrorist attack can take long time, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russian official agency TASS.

“It is absolutely not slow, investigation of such terrorist attacks can take rather a long time, but at the same time it does not mean it will be long,” he told reporters.

He said the Kremlin had no information as to when the results of investigation could be made public, “but no earlier than the investigation end”.

Peskov also said information was not prematurely disclosed about possible perpetrators, masterminds and those who had ordered the terrorist attack, reported TASS.

The head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s department for new challenges and threats, Ilya Rogachev, told Russian media that the US had passed certain information to Russia about the terrorist act on board Russia’s A321 airliner. and the competent agencies are working with it.

“As far as I know, the American partners have passed to us certain information about the plane, and the competent agencies are working with it,” Rogachev said. “The circumstances of this tragedy are constantly discussed at different levels with the British side.”

Rogachev stressed that Russia has for many years consistently urged partners to join efforts to combat the common threat of terrorism, to cooperate in good faith on a truly collective basis without politicisation and indoctrination of this problem, without introducing double standards. “In the current situation, we believe that such cooperation is becoming imperative,” he said.

He said he believes that if no action is taken, the terrorist threat will considerably grow in scale to Russia.

“Perhaps this is revenge for our participation in the fight against the Islamic State terrorist group in Syria. But I have no doubt that if no action is taken then the terrorist threat will considerably grow in scale to us,” he said.

Combatting terrorism will be in the focus of the meeting between the Russian president Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart François Hollande on 26 November.

Russian president’s aide Yuri Ushakov told Russian media that Moscow welcomes the French president’s intention to create a broad coalition against “Islamic State” that is in line with the initiative that Russian President Vladimir Putin put forward at the United Nations General Assembly.

“Our country welcomes the French president’s statement on intention to create a broad coalition to fight IS,” Ushakov said.

He said it is clear that the dialogue with the French president is particularly important in the wake of the Russian plane’s detonation over Egypt and the tragic terror attacks in Paris.

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Ahmed Abbas is a journalist at DNE’s politics section. He previously worked as Egypt based reporter for Correspondents.org, and interned as a broadcast journalist at Deutsche Welle TV in Berlin. Abbas is a fellow of Salzburg Academy of Media and Global Change. He holds a Master’s Degree of Journalism and New Media from Jordan Media Institute. He was awarded by the ICFJ for best public service reporting in 2013, and by the German foreign office for best feature in 2014.