Roundup: Egypt concerned over British suspension of flights to Sharm el-Sheikh

The Egyptian authorities voiced concern and unhappiness on Thursday about the British suspension of flights to Sharm el-Sheikh in the light of a recent tragedy of a Russian plane crash that killed all 224 on board.

The move is expected to add more recession to the tourism sector in Egypt, which has always been one of the main sources of the country's national income and foreign currency reserves.

"The Egyptian Tourism Ministry regrets the decision of the British government to suspend its flights to Sharm el-Sheikh and to link the decision to the recent Russian plane crash," the ministry's spokeswoman Rasha al-Azaizi said in a statement Thursday.

The statement added that the Egyptian authorities take all necessary precautions to protect the tourists on its lands and considered the British decision is "a prejudgement" ahead of the results of the ongoing investigation done by Egyptian and international experts.

"The decision was taken unilaterally without consulting Egypt, in spite of the high level contacts between the two sides just hours before the decision was announced," said the Egyptian Foreign Ministry in a statement Thursday.

The British decision came after several U.S. media reports cited unnamed sources suggesting that a planted bomb might have caused the Russian plane crash in Egypt's Sinai last week.

The reports prompted Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry to make a phone call to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to further discuss the issue.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said Kerry reassured that the media reports concerning U.S. assessments of the causes of the crash do not represent the official position of the U.S. administration.

A Sinai-based militant group loyal to the Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the Russian plane crash hours after the tragic accident, but the claim was strongly refuted by both the Egyptian and the Russian sides.

The British decision has been made while Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi is in London for a three-day visit to hold talks with the British side on various regional and international issues.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said in a joint press conference with Sisi that the UK is not the only country who made such a step and that "the United States changed its travel advisory and other European countries are taking some similar actions to what we have done."

"My role is to act in the right way to keep British citizens safe and secure and to put their security first," Cameron said, "I act on the basis of intelligence that I receive."

He still expressed uncertainty that a terrorist bomb was behind the Russian plane tragedy in Sinai, but he said that since there was a possibility "it was right to act the way that I did."

For his part, the Egyptian president showed understanding of the British decision and expressed hope for further enhancement of the bilateral relations between Egypt and Britain. Endit