Egypt's foreign minister said Saturday states that have announced that the Russian plane crash was caused by a bomb have not shared information in detail with Egyptian security apparatuses.
This raises question marks, Minister Sameh Shukri said at a joint press conference with his Hungarian counterpart, adding, "we expected the information available on the technical level to be made available to us instead of released onto the media scene."
After both the U.S. and UK lent support to the possibility that the Russian civilian flight was brought down by a bombing last week, Russia decided to halt flights to Egypt, but added that it was too soon to draw conclusions.
Dimitry Peskov, a Russian presidential spokesman said on Friday "we said that an inquiry was continuing and it did not rule out any theories," according to state-affiliated Russian Sputnik news agency.
On Friday night, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke over the phone, and agreed that "these actions are aimed toward ensuring the overall efficacy of security measures taken by the Egyptian authorities at the nation’s airports," according to a readout provided by the Kremlin.
The two heads of state also agreed that the "two nations’ corresponding agencies" will "maintain active cooperation, including by coordinating actions between Russian and Egyptian security agencies and aviation authorities."
The Egyptian presidency said, the Egyptian president and his Russian counterpart agreed on the "resumption of flights as soon as possible."
The Russian decision to suspend flights, comes after a UK decision to suspend all their flights from and to Sharm el-Sheikh, with exceptions made only for citizens currently stranded in the resort city trying to return at the end of their holidays.
An Airbus A321 operated by a Russian airliner took off from the tourist hub, Sharm el-Sheikh before crashing in the Sinai desert on October 31, leaving all 224 passengers and crew dead.
The majority of the passengers were Russian, except for four Ukrainians, one person from Belarus and three whose nationalities are unknown.
The cause of the crash remains unclear.
Citing a unnamed source, "close to the investigation," AFP said in a report published yesterday that black box data "strongly favours" the theory that the plane was brought down in a bombing. Another unnamed source told AFP the flight faced a "violent, sudden" end.
IS affiliates in North Sinai claimed responsibility for the crash twice in separate statements, one of which was hours after the plane crash but was initially dismissed locally and internationally.
In the second statement which was an audio recording released on Wednesday, the speaker said the downing of the plane marks the one-year anniversary of pledging allegiance to Islamic State fighters in Syria and Iraq.
Aswat Masriya couldn't independently verify the authenticity of the recording.
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond previously said there is a "significant possibility" an IS affiliate downed the Russian passenger plane that crashed in Sinai.
Afterwards, UK Prime Mnister Cameron said in a joint press conference with Sisi in London on Thursday that "it’s more likely than not" the plane was brought down by a bomb. He said he based his remarks on intelligence information and advice he received. Later the same day, U.S. President Barack Obama said that "it’s certainly possible that there was a bomb on board."
But Egypt, which is leading an investigation into the incident, insists that the cause of the crash cannot be determined before the probe is concluded.
Global intelligence firm Stratfor in an online report published Nov. 2, said that the "most probable explanation for the downed plane is the existence of an explosive device on board."
