Egypt has applauded Trump’s claim that the media ‘deliberately doesn't report’ terror attacks

Cairo's foreign ministry claims Western media shows 'clear bias' in reporting of terror attacks on Egyptian soil

Relatives of members of the Egyptian security forces killed in North Sinai in an Isis attack wait for the bodies of their loved ones at Cairo airport on January 30 2015 (AFP/Getty Images)

The Egyptian authorities have publicly welcomed US President Donald Trump’s allegations this week that Western media deliberately don’t report on terrorist attacks.

On Monday, Mr Trump accused the media of not reporting on jihadism-inspired terror attacks, a claim for which he gave no evidence.

“You have seen what happened in Paris and Nice. All over Europe it's happening. It's gotten to a point where it's not even being reported,” the president said, in defence of his controversial Muslim travel ban.

“And in many cases the very, very dishonest press doesn't want to report it.”

The White House later published a list of incidents involving Isis it said had not been adequately covered by news outlets, several of which were erroneous or had indeed received media coverage.

The list also notably did not mention several attacks generally regarded as under-covered, such as Isis bombings in Beirut, Lebanon, or any of the frequent attacks targeting the Israeli public.

In Cairo, a statement from Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid “hailed the US administration’s stance” in criticising “the Western media's coverage of some terrorist attacks around the world”.

The statement addressed “the White House release of a list of 78 terror attacks (nine of which were in Egypt) which Western media ignored in a clear bias,” Mr Zeid added.

“Accusations and the finger of blame were pointed at others [such as Egypt] after terrorist attacks... which some Western media portrayed as a security failure on the part of the government.”

Isis and other extremists have carried out dozens of bloody attacks in Egypt since democratically elected Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi was overthrown in a coup in 2013.

The foreign ministry made particular reference to the October 2015 incident in which a Russian commercial plane was shot down over the Sinai peninsula, killing 224 people.

A Russian investigation found that a bomb had bought the plane down. Isis at the time claimed both that they had smuggled a bomb on board, and that they had shot the plane down with an anti-aircraft missile.

Mr Zeid went on to say that Cairo hopes that there will be an “essential shift in the way the international community deals with the phenomenon of terrorism“.

While relations between Egypt and the US deteriorated steadily during former president Barack Obama’s tenure, Mr Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi have both spoken of their admiration for each other’s “strong” leadership.

Mr Sisi was the first foreign leader to call Mr Trump to offer his congratulations when the Republican candidate won the US election last November.