No sign of end to Russian travel ban on Sharm el-Sheikh

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Sun, 14 May 2017 - 08:29 GMT

BY

Sun, 14 May 2017 - 08:29 GMT

Cairo International Airport archive

Cairo International Airport archive

CAIRO – 14 May 2017: The deadline of restoring Russian air links with Egypt has yet to be announced despite the joint efforts exerted by both countries to ensure applying security measures recommended by Russia at Egyptian airports.

Travel restrictions are still unsolved since November 2015 when the Metrojet Airbus A321, flying from Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt to St Petersburg came down in the middle of Sinai and killed all 224 people onboard. Most of the victims were Russian. The Russian side claimed that the crash was caused by a bomb.

Following the accident, the Islamic State-linked Wilayat Sinai claimed in a statement on Twitter its responsibility for the crash of the Russian passenger plane. An immediate investigation was opened in cooperation between Egypt and different international agencies.

Moscow continues to delay the return of its tourists to Egypt under the pretext of imposing certain conditions. The Egyptian government has rejected recently the presence of Russian experts at its local airports.

The Russian news agency "Tass" shed light on a dispute between Moscow and Cairo, over the presence of Russian experts at Egyptian airports, pointing out that the negotiations over resuming flights between Egypt and Russia have not stopped, but there are some disputes regarding the permanent presence of Russian experts at airports in the country.

The deployment of Russian experts to Egyptian airports was accepted by Egypt in the first phase; however, it was objected recently as being a violation of national sovereignty.

Parliamentarian Ahmed Samih, member of tourism and civil aviation committee in parliament, said that Egypt has applied all the measures recommended by the Russian side, noting that Egyptian airports became the most secured in the world.

He added that no country would accept receiving foreign experts at its national airports, describing the Russian conditions as “arbitrary”.

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