Almost a month after ISIS downed Russia’s Airbus in Sinai, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and 26 officials visited Cairo for two-day discussions over further military cooperation. During a Tuesday meeting, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi presented a strategy to halt the rapid proliferation of extremist groups and cut off their sources of funding. “The strategy should also address military confrontations and security cooperation,” said a Tuesday presidency statement. “The murder of our people in Sinai is among the bloodiest crimes in terms of victims…This will stay with us forever but will not stop us finding and punishing the criminals,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said following the conclusion of his Russian Federal Security Service’s investigation. Putin had said that Russia will act in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter, which allows attacked countries to defend themselves in a direct way, stirring speculations of military intervention in the peninsula. However, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry dismissed the possibility of such an intervention. “Egypt’s armed forces are sensitive to foreign interference in Sinai. The armed forces are strong [enough to handle the peninsula],” said Mohamed Abdel Qader, an expert at…
