Given the European media’s obsessive coverage of a crowded Sharm airport packed with thousands of stranded passengers desperate to get away, the resort isn’t likely to attract many Westerners in the near future. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, has made no secret of his determination to wipe out all Islamists. Sisi inspired confidence in the West, and tourism rose by 3.3 billion (with 9. Initially, Egypt’s civil aviation minister, Hossam Kamal, ridiculed the idea. Sisi was actually in 10 Downing Street that David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, not only first publicly voiced the sabotage suspicion but also suspended normal flights to Sharm while laying on a series of special flights to bring back the 20,000 British tourists in the resort. Ever since he seized power in a military coup that overthrew the democratically elected President, Mohammed Morsi, in 2013, Egypt’s current President, Gen. Now, Egypt has the option of either ploughing a bleak and lonely West Asian furrow or being drawn even closer into a Western-backed tacit military alliance.

Indeed, if the crash was caused by the fanatical Islamic State of Iraq and Syria terrorists, as reports indicate, it may have been an act of enmity aimed directly at the Egyptian state, its credibility in the West and its handsome revenues from tourism. The former would bankrupt an already impoverished country; the latter could lead to political turmoil.The irony is that in no way did the crash indict conditions at Sharm el-Sheikh. Now, led by the British, tourists from other European countries are bound to shun the ancient land of the Pyramids. Although criticised for his human rights abuses and heavy-handed suppression of civil rights — perhaps because of them! — Gen. Given latest trends, there is little likelihood of Egypt’s tourism minister, Khaled Ramy, realising his target of earning bottle manufacturers in china $26 billion by 2020. Listening to the stream of proclamations from the British Prime Minister’s Office, it sounded like another evacuation of Dunkirk. Meanwhile, American surveillance caught the “chatter” of ISIS operatives exulting in the tragedy. When the crash occurred, the ISIS promptly claimed responsibility. That confirms the supposition that Egyptian officials at Sharm missed the ISIS bomb.9 million foreign visitors), leave alone achieving the 2010 peak of 14. But it was while Gen.

The case is against flying, not against holidaying in Egypt.Further hammering a nail into the coffin of Egyptian competence, the British let it be known that only two months ago, a private British travel company’s plane with 189 passengers on board almost collided with an Egyptian missile above Sharm. Even British holidaymakers who fled as if Sharm had been struck by the plague say there was nothing wrong with the resort. The implicit accusation is that Egyptians are lax about security. Several thousand other Britons are holidaying in Hurghada and Luxor. If an ISIS bomb brought down the Metrojet, it could bring down any other aircraft taking off from any other airport in the world. Instead, they claimed to have detected sounds of a “violent, sudden” explosion from the black box.1 per cent in the first six months of this year. It was comfortable and well looked after, and there was absolutely no security threat.The Egyptians are understandably angry and disappointed at this turn of events. After initially disputing the bomb theory, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin followed Mr Cameron’s lead. The Netherlands, Ireland and Germany had already grounded all flights to Sharm.

The main message conveyed by the panic exodus of visitors from Sharm is that Egypt is not safe for Westerners. Without them, there is little hope of earning even last year’s $7. Russians account for 80 per cent of the tourist traffic to Sharm, Britons the remaining 20 per cent. Al-Sisi purged all his predecessor’s supporters, killing hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood cadres. That might have repercussions on the wider course of Egyptian and West Asian politics. They dismissed the idea of a technical failure in the air. It was in the air. The French investigators, who were examining the plane’s black boxes together with experts from Russia, Ireland and Germany, thought otherwise.7 million tourists from abroad. Ostracised and persecuted, others rallied to the ISIS standard and became active in the ISIS affiliate, Sinai Province, which has been waging a bitter war against Cairo’s forces in the north of the Sinai peninsula. Since Mr Morsi was the Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate, Gen. Further evidence of Mr Cameron’s scepticism was evident when Gen. Either way, it’s the ISIS’ revenge against the Muslim world’s premier nation-state. The threat was not on the ground.

Only, he had — or rather, has, for the task is by no means finished — to bring back more than 80,000 Russian tourists.Whatever other result the tragic crash of the Russian Metrojet Airbus A321 whose Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg Flight 9268 ended in the sands of Sinai, killing all 224 persons on board, may have, it has dealt a paralysing blow to Egypt’s economy.None of this was public knowledge until President Sisi arrived in London on a visit that had been arranged much earlier. London wasn’t accusing Egypt of trying to down the British aircraft. Even after the rescue airlift began, a British man brandished a bottle of water on TV to say he had smuggled it through security.

Sisi let it be known in London that British intelligence and security experts had been based in Sharm for the last 10 months. Nor would security at Sharm allow any explosive to be smuggled aboard.The writer is a senior journalist, columnist and author. Worse, it attributed the near-miss to Egyptian military’s incompetence.Tourism is one of Egypt’s principal means of earning hard currency. Cairo’s case was that the ISIS didn’t have the sophisticated equipment to shoot down the Metrojet.The ISIS has now hit where it hurts most