He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss intelligence matters publicly.
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Russian Federation dismissed the claim as speculation and Egypt said there was no indication so far that a bomb was to blame. The most important thing, the British leader said, is for the tourists to come home safely, explaining the safety measures.
Sisi said Egypt and Britain are “working intensively together in a spirit of close co-operation … to address this and get back to normal as soon as possible”.
Hours earlier, the United Kingdom had cited possible evidence of a bombing as it advised against non-essential travel to the Sharm el-Sheikh vacation area.
“If they have information and they are not presenting it that is shocking”, the No 10 spokeswoman added.
Flights to repatriate British tourists from Sharm el-Sheikh will begin tomorrow following agreement with the Egyptian authorities on a “package of additional security measures”, Downing Street has confirmed.
Meanwhile, France and Ireland joined Britain in suspending all flights to the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Egypt’s pride and its tourism industry have been deeply wounded by the fallout from Saturday’s crash.
The restrictions on those fleeing the Red sea resort include only being allowed to fly with one item of hand luggage – small enough to fit under the seat in front – per person.
German airline Lufthansa canceled flights to and from Sharm el-Sheikh until further notice.
He told CNN he was “somewhat surprised” by the British statement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin broke his silence on the issue earlier this morning suggesting Britain had jumped the gun on grounding its flights.
“The signs pointing to ISIS [or the Islamic State], another USA official said, are partially based on monitoring of internal messages of the terrorist group”.
Media captionWere Islamic militants behind Sinai crash?
US satellites also detected a heat flash where that plane was last located but again – that could indicate mechanical failure, or a deliberate explosion.
“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”, he said.
Russian Federation and Egypt, however, have remained skeptical about the crash causes.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said the decisions to halt air traffic were made without its input.
Belgium’s foreign minister told Belgian TV (in French) that the government was temporarily advising against trips to Sharm el-Sheikh while it awaited guarantees on airport security. Metrojet officials have insisted the crash was due to an “external impact”, not a technical malfunction or pilot error.
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The search for bodies in the wreckage of that Russian jet that crashed in Egypt is supposed to wrap up this afternoon.
