Egypt’s President alluded to terrorism in the downing of a Russian passenger jet over Sinai last year, though he did not say directly that terrorists carried out an attack on it.
“Has the confrontation and terrorism ended? No, not yet. Whoever downed that plane, what did he want?” Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said in a speech at a conference. “Just to hit tourism? No. To hit relations. To hit relations with Russia, hit relations with Italy.”
State-run news site al-Ahram reported that this was the first time the Egyptian President has acknowledged terrorism could be the cause of the crash of Metrojet Flight 9268 on October 31 that killed all 224 people on board.
The Russian government has said that a bomb brought down the plane and has offered a reward of $50 million for information about those responsible.