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British Prime Minister David Cameron said Thursday that it was “more likely than not” that the Russian airliner that crashed last week killing 224 people in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula was caused by a “terrorist bomb.”
Russia and Egypt insist such theories are mere speculation at this stage and that there is still no indication that a bomb is to blame for the downing the aircraft.
Amid such competing views, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told the Egyptian foreign minister in a telephone call Thursday that the U.S. government has yet to make an official determination of the cause of the crash, according to a state department official.
Separately, in his first public comments on the disaster, Obama said in a radio interview: "There's a possibility that there was a bomb on board. And we're taking that very seriously."
"We're going to spend a lot of time just making sure our own investigators and own intelligence community find out what's going on before we make any definitive pronouncements. But it's certainly possible that there was a bomb on board," Obama told KIRO/CBS News Radio in Seattle.
In the U.K., in addition to the prime minister's comments, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Thursday there was a “significant possibility” that the Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), known as the Sinai Province Group, was responsible for the plane's demise.
“ISIL-Sinai have claimed responsibility for bringing down the Russian aircraft, they did that straight away after the crash,” Hammond told Sky News, using another name for the ISIL franchise. “We've looked at the whole information picture, including that claim, but of course lots of other bits of information as well, and concluded that there is a significant possibility.”
Also on Thursday, British officials said that flights bringing back U.K. tourists from Sharm el-Sheikh will resume Friday.
Britain had suspended all flights to and from the airport on Wednesday over fears that a bomb may have brought down the Russian jet.
Prime Minister David Cameron's office said in a statement Thursday that additional security measures will be in place on the flights from Sharm el-Sheikh, including only allowing passengers to carry hand baggage. Checked luggage will be transported separately.
Outbound flights from Britain to Sharm el-Sheikh remain grounded, and the British government is warning against all but essential air travel to or from that airport.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Russian planes were still flying to and from Sharm al‐Sheikh airport, where the doomed flight originated in contrast to the restrictions by Britain and Ireland. He also disputed Hammond’s comments, calling them premature.
“We have said this before and we will repeat it again: theories about what happened and the causes of the incident can only be pronounced by the investigation,” said Peskov. “So far, we have heard nothing [like this] from the investigation. Any kind of similar assumptions like this are based on information that has not been checked or are speculation.”
Egyptian officials echoed Peskov’s sentiments.
The country’s civil aviation minister, Hossam Kamal, said in a statement: “The investigation team does not have yet any evidence or data confirming this hypothesis.”
The Sinai Province Group has killed hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police since President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, as army chief, toppled former President Mohamed Morsi in 2013 in a military coup.
Al Jazeera and wire services
British government says it is suspending flights to and from the Sinai Peninsula amid ‘increasing concern’
Early intelligence suggests bomb brought down Russian airliner in Sinai Peninsula, officials tell The Associated Press
Russian plane’s black boxes set to be examined amid swirling speculation over what downed passenger jet
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