CAIRO, December 17. /TASS/. Egyptian authorities have assumed a position of non-interference in the conflict between Turkey and Russia, Al-Watan newspaper said on Thursday quoting Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry.
"Egypt has no plans to interfere in the Russian-Turkish crisis and it does not take sides with either party to this conflict," he said. "Cairo has its own vision and independent objectives meeting the interests of national security."
Egyptian side is conducting open contacts with the Russian government on a return of Russian tourists to the seaside resorts in the Land of the Pyramids. The severing of commercial flights between Russia and Egypt in the wake of October 31 crash of the Russian A321 jet over the Sinai Peninsula, which killed 224 persons, has exerted an extremely bad impact on the Egyptian tour industry.
Ahmed Abu Zeid, the Foreign Ministry's official spokesman told TASS earlier Cairo hoped the November incident, in which a fighter jet of the Turkish Air Force attacked and shot down a Russian Sukhoi-24M bomber in northern Syria would not affect Moscow's efforts to curb terrorism in Syria and it would continue its struggle there.
Along with it, Cairo found the downing of the Sukhoi-24M to be highly regrettable, he said.