UK flight suspension a conspiracy: Egyptians

Sharm El Sheikh - Egypt accuses Britain of pre-empting the investigation when it said the plane was likely to have been brought down by a bomb.

By Reuters

Published: Thu 12 Nov 2015, 11:00 PM

Last updated: Fri 13 Nov 2015, 9:21 AM

Britain' swift suspension of flights after the Russian plane crash in Sinai has revived old grievances in Egypt, where many accuse the former colonial ruler of acting out of malice and suspect a dark plot against their country.
Newspaper columns, television broadcasts, street conversations and even government websites repeat a daily chorus of accusations that Britain pre-empted the investigation when it said the plane was likely to have been brought down by a bomb.
Suggestions that security at Sharm El Sheikh airport where the plane took off was sub-standard also wounded national pride.
"I'm not one of those people who goes on about conspiracy theories, but there are signs of one," Major General Magdi Moussa, security chief in the southern Sinai Peninsula, told the Egyptian daily Al Masry Al-Youm this week.
"Five days after the plane crash, there was talk that it was caused by terrorism - without evidence. This confirms that there is ill-will towards Egypt."
Columnist Hani Assal said hostility to Egypt was a feature of British journalism from the Nasser era in the 1950s through to President Abdel Fattah El Sisi's visit to London last week.
"Throughout history British media committed dozens of professional errors, starting with the fierce campaign against the late president Gamal Abdel Nasser after the expulsion of the British occupation," he wrote in the state-owned Al Ahram newspaper.
"The unfortunate result is that the British media is part of a big plan, which started with the president's visit and probably isn't over yet."
The United States, which also said Daesh probably brought down the plane, has come in for criticism too. "The American media and the plane accident ... the lies don't stop," a headline in Al Ahram said on Thursday. "The plane and the conspiracy", said the state-owned Al-Gomhuriya newspaper.
Most of the media criticism of the West skirted around the fact that Russia has gone further than Britain by banning all flights to Egypt, most likely for months. - Reuters