The Aircraft Bomb And Its Aftermath.

While the loved ones of the victims struggle to contain their grief, and one cannot imagine how dreadful that is, the rest of the world has to consider the consequences.

The first is that for IS, which in one form or another appears to be responsible, this is in their terms a spectacular success. They may well want to repeat it. Airline safety precautions will have to move up a notch. Next, it is a disaster for the Egyptian economy. The false dawn of the Arab Spring has left many scars on this ancient country, a key player in the maelstrom of Middle East discord. Most importantly Egypt is just about the only country which has good relations with the West, Russia, Israel and Saudi Arabia. In any negotiations for peace anywhere in the region it is and can continue to be a key player. It will need economic help and perhaps help with sophisticated security countermeasures to help tourists to return in safety.

There is no doubt the situation of flight chaos could have been avoided to a considerable extent if Russia and Egypt (and yes to a degree the US) had not clung for so long to the misleading notion of a technical fault. It was clear within three hours of the disaster hitting the media that no technical fault could cause a modern airliner to fall to pieces without warning in a clear sky. Indeed had such a prospect been credible, half the world’s passenger air fleet would have to be grounded for inspections. This wasted a good deal of time and heightened the impact, from an IS perspective, of a world thrown into confusion. Just what they hoped for.

Russia has now made amends by halting further flights to this beleaguered country until unambiguous confirmation of security upgrades at airports can be confirmed. But Russia and Iran can do more. Now they are engaged in Syria, they must ensure their air and ground campaign has enough punch to bring matters to a political head so that meaningful peace negotiations can start. They must not follow the example set by the West of military efforts which contain and annoy but get nowhere and go on forever. That is what gave rise to IS in the first place.