PM Cameron Takes Heat for Likely Bomb Cause in Downing of Russian Jet

Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday it was increasingly likely a bomb brought down a Russian airliner over Egypt with the loss of 224 lives, and U.S. President Barack Obama said Washington was taking that possibility “very seriously”.

But Moscow, which launched air strikes against Islamist fighters including Islamic State in Syria more than a month ago, said it was premature to reach conclusions that the flight was attacked.

In a telephone call, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Cameron it was important that assessments of the cause of the crash last Saturday be based on information from the official investigation, Interfax news agency reported.

Egypt, which depends on tourism as a crucial source of revenue, said there was no evidence a bomb was to blame.

A Sinai-based group affiliated with Islamic State, the militant group that has seized swathes of Iraq and Syria, has claimed responsibility for the crash, which if confirmed would make it the first attack on civil aviation by the world’s most violent jihadist organisation.

Cameron, who hosted Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi for a previously scheduled visit, said: “We cannot be certain that the Russian airliner was brought down by a terrorist bomb, but it looks increasingly likely that that was the case.”

His foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, said it was “a significant possibility” that Islamic State was responsible, given a range of information, including the claim of responsibility.

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.

Britain, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands have suspended flights to and from Sharm al-Sheikh, leaving thousands of European tourists stranded in the Red Sea resort where the plane took off. A spokesperson for Cameron said later that flights from the resort destination to Britain would resume on Friday.

Cairo said the decision to suspend flights was unjustified and should be reversed immediately.

Britain said it was working with airlines and Egyptian authorities to put in place additional security and screening measures at the airport to allow Britons to get home. If a bomb brought down the Airbus A321, that would devastate Egypt’s tourism industry, still recovering from years of political turmoil.

ABC News, citing government and aviation officials, said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was expected to call for tighter security, possibly as soon as Friday, at certain foreign airports that have direct flights to the United States. DHS said it had no announcements to make for now.

While Egypt has bristled at the suspensions of flights, Sisi said during his visit to London that he understood concerns about safety. He said Cairo had been asked 10 months ago to check security at the airport in Sharm al-Sheikh.

“We understood their concern because they are really interested in the safety and security of their nationals,” he added.

Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, said Russian planes were still flying to and from Sharm al‐Sheikh.

“Theories about what happened and the causes of the incident can only be pronounced by the investigation,” Peskov said.

Egypt’s civil aviation minister, Hossam Kamal, said investigators had no evidence so far to support the explosion theory. Russian aviation agency Rosaviatsia said investigators would examine whether there was any explosive material on the plane.

Security experts and investigators have said the plane is unlikely to have been struck from the outside and Sinai militants are not believed to have any missiles capable of striking a jet at 30,000 feet. Russia’s Kogalymavia airline, which operated the plane, said three of its four remaining A321 jets had passed Russian safety checks, while the fourth would be checked shortly.

Russia began burying some of those killed in the crash, which could affect strong public support for the Kremlin’s air strikes in Syria.

Islamic State has called for war against both Russia and the United States in response to their air strikes in Syria. Egyptian intelligence officials said the Islamic State branch suspected in the downing of the aeroplane had eluded a security dragnet by operating in secretive cells inspired by a leader who was once a clothing importer.

The Sinai Province group has focused on killing Egyptian soldiers and police since the military toppled President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013 after mass protests.

 

Shaker Aamer released from Guantánamo Bay

The last British prisoner in Guantanamo Bay has been released, it was confirmed today.

Father-of-four Shaker Aamer had been detained at the US military jail in Cuba since 2002 without trial.

He was cleared for release at the end of last month, but Mr Aamer’s wife Zin and four children, one of whom he has never met, have been waiting for his return.

His release was confirmed by Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond this morning.

Andy Worthington, co-director of the We Stand With Shaker campaign, said he had informed by Mr Aamer’s lawyer that he is due to return to the UK today.

He said: ‘We’re delighted to hear that his long and unacceptable ordeal has come to an end.

‘We hope he won’t be detained by the British authorities on his return and gets the psychological and medical care that he needs to be able to resume his life with his family in London.’

Other reports suggested he was already on a flight back home.

Human rights charity Reprieve wrote on Twitter: ‘Looks like a plane has left Guantanamo Bay, bound for London.’

But a spokesman for Reprieve said it had no confirmation of Mr Aamer’s release and it would not receive advance warning.

Mr Aamer, 46, says he was working as a charity worker in Afghanistan when he was kidnapped and handed over to US forces in 2001.

During his time in captivity, his lawyers said he was subjected to torture, with beatings and sleep deprivation, and held in solitary confinement for 360 days.

In 2005, he lost half his body weight during a hunger strike.

His family, MPs and actors Mark Rylance and Maxine Peake have also taken part in a 24-hour fast to show their support. Mr Aamer said he cried when he read about the protests.

He was described in US military files obtained by the WikiLeaks website as a ‘close associate of Osama bin Laden’ who fought in the battle of Tora Bora.

However in 2007 the allegations against him were dropped and he was cleared for release.

Despite a formal request by then foreign secretary David Miliband, American authorities refused to allow him to go.

In letters, Mr Aamer said he was not sure if he would know how to respond to his name after being referred to as 239 – his prison number – for more than a decade.

Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen said: ‘After so many twists and turns in this appalling case, we won’t really believe that Shaker Aamer is actually being returned to the UK until his plane touches down on British soil.

‘We should remember what a terrible travesty of justice this case has been, and that having been held in intolerable circumstances for nearly 14 years Mr Aamer will need to time to readjust to his freedom.’

In a letter to Mr Aamer’s US lawyer earlier this month, Clive Stafford Smith, Mr Hammond said he ‘greatly welcomed’ the decision to release his client.

It was claimed Mr Aamer’s release was delayed to appease US politicians visiting the camp.

Three Republican Senators visited the camp on a ‘fact-finding’ mission.

Asked about the timescale, Mr Hammond said: ‘As you know, the US authorities have now informed us that they have decided to return Shaker Aamer to the UK.

‘We greatly welcome this decision. The US government has notified Congress and once that notice period has concluded, Mr Aamer will return to the UK.

‘In the meantime we will continue to work closely with the US administration on arrangements for Mr Aamer’s return.’

Speaking about the delays earlier this week, Mr Stafford Smith, who is also Director of pressure group Reprieve, said: ‘Sadly, as we have said all along, it looks like those who don’t want Shaker released are dragging their feet.

‘We want to thank all those who have been committed to helping Shaker, but we must all continue to press the authorities on both sides of the Atlantic to do as they promised.

‘Surely 14 years of abuse is enough every additional day is an additional insult to justice. He has to come home now, and his family must be put out of their eternal misery.’

Downing Street has refused to comment on the timing of Mr Aamer’s release.

But the PM’s spokesman said earlier this week: ‘We have been working with the US to make sure the case is dealt with as quickly as possible.’

 

Britain Re-opens Embassy in Tehran

Britain reopened its embassy in Tehran on Sunday nearly four years after protesters ransacked the ambassador’s residence and burned the Union Jack.

In a signal of the most striking thaw in Western ties with Iran for over a decade, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond watched the British flag being raised in the garden of the opulent 19th century building while the national anthem played.

“Today’s ceremony marks the end of one phase in the relationship between our two countries and the start of a new one – one that I believe offers the promise of better,” he said.

The attack that forced the embassy to close was a low point in diplomacy between the two countries, he said, but the relationship had improved “step by step” since the election of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in 2013.

Hammond said the nuclear deal that the Islamic Republic struck with six major world powers last month was also an important milestone.

The agreement prompted a flurry of European visits – including from German and French ministers – aimed at positioning for the end of Iran’s long economic isolation.

Britain had operated without an embassy since Iranian protesters stormed its two main diplomatic compounds in Tehran on Nov. 29, 2011. The protesters slashed portraits of British monarchs, torched a car and stole electronic equipment.

Prime Minister David Cameron called the act a ‘disgrace’, closed Britain’s embassy and expelled Iran’s diplomats from London. Iran will simultaneously re-open its embassy in London on Sunday and both will initially be run by chargé d’affaires but ambassadors will be agreed within months, Hammond said.

He is only the second British foreign minister to visit Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed shah. The last visit was by Jack Straw in 2003.

Accompanying Hammond was a small group of business leaders, including representatives from Royal Dutch Shell, Energy and mining services company Amec Foster Wheeler and Scottish industrial engineering firm Weir Group.

After more than a decade of casting the Islamic Republic as a rogue power seeking to sow turmoil through the Middle East, Britain has sought to improve ties with Iran, whose proven natural gas reserves are as vast as Russia’s.

“In the first instance, we will want to ensure that the nuclear agreement is a success, including by encouraging trade and investment once sanctions are lifted,” Hammond said.

Under the nuclear deal, sanctions imposed by the United States, European Union and United Nations will be lifted in exchange for Iran agreeing long-term curbs on a nuclear program the West suspected was intended to make a nuclear bomb. Tehran has always denied seeking nuclear arms.

“This is a vast emerging market to open up, a vast frontier market: Iran is potentially something of an energy superpower,” Norman Lamont, a former British finance minister who now chairs the British Iranian Chamber of Commerce said.

While the nuclear deal is seen as a major opportunity by some, including U.S. President Barack Obama, hardliners in Washington and Tehran have opposed it, as has Israel.

Britain has been cast for decades by opponents inside Iran as a perfidious “Old Fox” or “Little Satan” who does the bidding of “Big Satan,” the United States.

Britain’s embassy in Tehran – built as a symbol of imperial might when Britain was locked into the ‘Great Game’ struggle for influence with swiftly expanding Tsarist Russia – has long been the subject of intrigue.

Following the 2011 storming, which was a protest against nuclear-related sanctions imposed by London, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called it an “evil embassy”.

There has been no U.S. embassy in Tehran since it was sacked in the early days of the Islamic Revolution in 1979 by students who feared a repeat of a 1953 coup when the CIA orchestrated the overthrow of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh.

The U.S. hostage crisis lasted 444 days and Washington and Tehran have never resumed diplomatic relations, leaving Britain first in line for the anti-Western feelings of the hardliners who run the Islamic Republic and their supporters