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WORLD NEWSTuesday 10 November 2015

A Russian air defense missile system Antey 2500, or S-300 VM, is on display at the MAKS Air Show Thousands of Russians leave
in Zhukovsky outside Moscow. The head of a Russian state-controlled industrial conglomerate Egypt over security concerns
says the contract for the delivery of S-300 air defense missile systems to Iran has been finalized.
BRIAN ROHAN
(AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev) Associated Press
CAIRO (AP) — Thousands of Russians vacationers were
Russia finalizes missile contract with Iran heading home from Egypt on Monday aboard special-
planes sent by Moscow, which has suspended all flights
V. ISACHENKOV change for relief from in- ment to set off a regional to Egypt amid security concerns in the aftermath of the
Associated Press ternational sanctions. arms race and that as far Oct. 31 plane crash of a Russian airliner that killed all
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia Once the first part of the as Israel was concerned its 224 people onboard.
has finalized a contract for contract is fulfilled, Mos- main impact was to com- Other airliners from Britain and Western Europe also
the delivery of advanced cow expects Iran to drop plicate any potential Israeli are arriving to bring their nationals home, after several
air-defense missile systems its lawsuit at a court in Ge- airstrike against Iran. countries and airlines last week suspended new flights
to Iran, the head of a Rus- neva seeking damages for “The nature of deployment to Egypt because of the security concerns as suspi-
sian state-controlled indus- the suspension of the origi- in Iran would be defensive cions focused on the possibility that a bomb caused
trial conglomerate said nal deal, Chemezov said. and trying to prevent the the Metrojet crash.
Monday. He wouldn’t specify what capability of our air force U.S. and British officials have cited intelligence reports
Sergei Chemezov, the version of the system Russia to operate there as it may as indicating that the Oct. 31 flight from the Sinai resort
head of Russian Technolo- will supply or when the de- be capable of operating town of Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg was brought
gies, the holding company livery will be made. Russian today,” he said. “There will down by a bomb on board. Most of the 224 people
that includes the Rosobo- officials have said that the be a dramatic change in onboard were Russian tourists.
ronexport arms trader, said specific model of the S-300 their capability and it does British Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond offered some
Monday on a trip to Dubai that Russia was to deliver not create a reasonable of the strongest comments yet on the issue, telling re-
that “the contract with Iran under the 2007 contract is environment for any op- porters on Monday that it “now looks more likely than
for the S-300 has entered no longer produced, and eration of our air force.” not to have been an explosive device smuggled on to
into force,” according to offered Iran a modified Herzog said another Israeli the plane” by operatives or loyalists of the Islamic State
Russian news agencies. version of it. fear was that if deployed group.
Russia in 2010 froze a deal The missile system deal has to Iran’s ally Syria, the pow- Hammond, speaking from the United Nations in New
to supply advanced S-300 long worried Israel and erful systems could fall into York, said the U.K. was willing to resume flights to Sharm
missile systems to Iran, link- other countries in the re- the hands of the Islamic el-Sheikh, but added, “That will depend on us working
ing the decision to U.N. gion, as well as the U.S., State group. together with the Egyptian authorities and with the air-
sanctions. President Vladi- which see it as destabiliz- Moscow has insisted the lines to put in place security arrangements which are
mir Putin lifted the suspen- ing. S-300 is a purely defensive robust.” Israel Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon told re-
sion earlier this year fol- Arieh Herzog, a former system that wouldn’t jeop- porters on Monday that there was a “high probability”
lowing Iran’s deal with six head of Israel’s Missile De- ardize the security of Israel that theplane was brought down by a bomb.
world powers that curbed fense Program, said he or any other countries in Yaalon said he “would be surprised” if a planted ex-
its nuclear program in ex- didn’t expect the ship- the Middle East.q plosive device did not cause the crash. But he noted
that Israel is not involved in the investigation and said
his opinion was based on “what we hear and under-
stand.” Since the Russian suspension of Egypt flights
was announced on Friday, dozens of airliners have
been bringing Russian tourists back home, carrying
only cabin baggage, while Russian cargo planes are
hauling back the rest of their luggage.
Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said
it would take about two weeks to bring all the stranded
Russian tourists back home. Dvorkovich, who has been
made the point-man for the repatriation in the wake of
the Russian plane crash in Sinai, said earlier in the day
25,000 have already been brought back home since
the weekend. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev
said he does not expect flights to Egypt to resume any
time soon, saying that “it will take time” to ensure safe-
ty of travelers in Egypt. He stopped short of giving a
timeline for that.q