Hain upbeat on NI prospects
Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain met US special envoy Mitchel Reiss in Dublin on Tuesday to discuss steps to lift the suspension of the Stormont Assembly.
The meeting came as the Blair government announced in the Queen’s Speech it intended to revive “the conditions necessary for the restoration of political institutions in Northern Ireland”.
After the “excellent” meeting, Mr Hain said the US was a “powerful partner” in the peace process.
“We’re both partners for peace, our two governments, in driving forward the peace process in Northern Ireland and making sure we get an agreement in place that locks in long-term stability, peace, prosperity and an end to paramilitary activity and criminality,” he said.
Mr Reiss added: “The goal is the same as it has always been to try and bring peace to the people of Northern Ireland who for so long have wanted it so much.
“And everything that I can do, that the Bush administration can do, that the President can do in order to assist, we will do so, and I think we’re off to a very good start today.”
Democratic Unionist leader Dr Ian Paisley also met Mr Reiss in London and told him the peace process could move on without Sinn Fein or those “still entangled with paramilitary and criminal activity”.
Mr Reiss is also pencilled in to meet unionist and nationalist politicians in Belfast this week.
Devolution was suspended in October 2002 amid allegations that the IRA was running a “spy-ring” at the Northern Ireland offices.
On Thursday, Tony Blair is expected to hold separate, formal talks with DUP leader Dr Paisley and Sinn Fein counterpart Gerry Adams, in a bid to move the peace process forward.
But he is expected to hear calls from the DUP for a voluntary coalition, excluding Sinn Fein, and a request for at least three seats in the House of Lords.
An SDLP delegation led by Mark Durkan is due to meet with the Prime Minister next week.
The SDLP is keen to see London and Dublin honour pledges to abide by the Good Friday Agreement in the months ahead.
Last year, talks broke down after the IRA refused to hand over photographic evidence of weapons decommissioning – a key demand of Dr Paisley.
And a crisis ensued when IRA members were alleged to have carried out the £26.5 million raid on the Northern Bank in Belfast and were reportedly involved in the murder of Belfast man Robert McCartney outside a bar in the city in January.
Mr Hain meets the Irish Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and Irish foreign minister, Dermot Ahern, this evening.
