Parties debriefed on fresh Irish peace plans
Northern Irish political parties met with leaders in London and Dublin on Wednesday to explore fresh plans to break the political impasse on power sharing in Northern Ireland.
The largest unionist party in the province, the DUP, held an hour long meeting with Tony Blair at Downing Street, while Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern spoke for more than four hours with Sinn Fein in Dublin.
Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern predicted the next few days would prove “crucial”.
Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness are to meet with the Prime Minister at Downing Street today to air their concerns over the new proposals.
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said his party had several concerns about the latest package of proposals but declined to clarify their precise nature.
More positively, he added that once those concerns were addressed there was a substantive basis for an agreement.
DUP leader Dr Ian Paisley gave no comment as he left Downing Street.
It is believed Catholic and Protestant churchmen will be allowed to witness any future acts of “visible” weapons decommissioning by the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
The verifiability of weapons decommissioning is the main bone of contention among unionists and deemed central to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
Sinn Fein said it would back the initiative if the proposals were part of an overall deal.
Mr Blair said the restoration of power sharing at Stormont was premised on an end to paramilitary violence “once and for all” and “in all its forms”.
Such a premise would leave the unionists with “no reason” to refuse to share power with republicans, he said.
