British, Irish Leaders Try to Rescue N. Ireland Peace Deal

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, April 11, 2003

British, Irish Leaders Try to Rescue N. Ireland Peace Deal

The British and Irish prime ministers are to make an overnight effort to rescue their peace plan aimed at reviving the suspended power-sharing government in Northern Ireland.

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The British and Irish prime ministers are to make an overnight effort to rescue their peace plan aimed at reviving the suspended power-sharing government in Northern Ireland.

Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern called off a joint visit to Belfastand canceled plans to be published Thursday, the fifth anniversaryof the 1998 Good Friday agreement.

Instead, they met at Downing Street and have been keeping in telephone contact with the political parties in the province aftertheir blueprint to fully implement the 1998 Agreement appeared to stall at the last minute, according to local reports.

Meanwhile, a US official said Richard Haass, the Bush's envoy to Northern Ireland, was expected to visit the province next week in a bid to help the parties revive a stymied peace plan.

"We affirm our strong support for Prime Ministers Blair and Ahern's efforts to secure lasting peace and stability in Northern Ireland and we renew our call on Northern Ireland political leadership to take this opportunity for peace and to adopt the plan that is before them as their own," said US National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack.

Speaking after a Downing Street news conference Thursday, Blairand Ahern issued grim warnings about hopes of a lasting Northern Ireland peace deal, noting there must be clarity in the Northern Ireland political process if the present deadlock was to be overcome.

"If there isn't clarity there isn't confidence and if there isn't confidence then there isn't a deal," said Blair.

"We do need certainty, we do need clarity. This stage has been called the completion phase over the past six months - I hope we can finalize that," Ahern added.

However, they refused to point the finger of blame but said time was running extremely short. "There are still a few outstanding issues that have to be resolved," said an Irish government source.

It was said that Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republic Army (IRA), had warned the British government that the demands for public IRA disarmament were impossible to meet.

If there is a demand that the IRA carry out an act of decommissioning in public, or there is an attempt to insert an exclusion clause into the process, then those could be deal-breakers, said a Sinn Fein spokesman.

"In effect what has happened is that republicans have said theyare not prepared to complete the transition to peaceful means," David Trimble, Ulster Union leader and the former first minister, told BBC radio.

It is widely expected that the new peace plan, aimed at reviving the power-sharing government of Northern Ireland, would persuade the IRA to disarm itself and call an end to hostilities.

In return, the British government would scale down its militarypresence and hand over control of policing and justice system.

Britain has withdrawn about a third of its troops since 1998, leaving about 13,000, half of them locally recruited Protestants.

A senior security officer of the Northern Ireland office told Xinhua last month that if the IRA agrees total disarmament, the British government would consider withdrawing some 5,000 troops more from the province.

Other crucial issues include Sinn Fein's refusal to endorse newpolicing arrangements and a bill of rights and equality legislation.

On Tuesday, Blair, Ahern and US President George W. Bush issueda joint statement in Belfast to urge all parties in the Northern Ireland to end paramilitary activity completely and irrevocably, so as to move the Good Friday Agreement forward.

Progress on implementing the Good Friday accords has been stalled since last October when Northern Ireland's power-sharing executive and assembly were suspended amid a row over alleged IRA spy activities.

Northern Ireland has been plagued by three decades of politicaland sectarian violence between Protestants committed to keeping the union with Britain and Catholics who want to end it and unite with the Irish Republic.

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