CAIRO, February 7. /TASS/. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry has officially described the crash of the Russian airliner over the Sinai Peninsula in October 2015 as a terrorist attack, Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ahmed Abu Zeid, said on Tuesday in response to a list of 78 terrorist attacks, which did not get sufficient media coverage, released by the White House.
Commenting on critical remarks by US President, Donald Trump, who accused US media of covering up terrorist attacks in Europe and elsewhere by not reporting them, the Egyptian diplomat noted that 9 out of 78 attacks occurred in Egypt. "Terrorist operations have killed dozens or even hundreds of people, including the crash of the Russian airliner in Sinai and the explosion of the al-Butrusia Coptic Church," he said. "It is regrettable that the selectivity and bias criticized by Trump apply to the some Western media’s approach towards covering terrorist attacks."
Egypt previously did not reject the version of a terror attack on board the Russian plane that crashed on October 31, 2015. However, Cairo has always pointed to the need to wait for the official results of the probe, which have not been made public to date. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly stressed that work at all stages of the investigation was conducted proceeding from the assumption that the air crash was a deliberate act.
"The White House’s stance is in line with Egypt’s repeated calls on the need for comprehensive, consistent and unselective counterterrorism strategy, including in its political, information and cultural aspects," the spokesman noted.