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Clinton Hopes to Push N. Ireland Parties Toward Peace
US President Bill Clinton Wednesday held talks in Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, with political leaders from the rivalry parties in the British province, clearly hoping that sitting in a room and talking will at least keep the peace process going on.
Clinton was meeting with David Trimble, Protestant first minister in the new provincial government, and Seamus Mallon, the government's senior Roman Catholic, for an update on the issues that have pitched the Good Friday Peace Accord into turmoil.
"The president's trip has intensified the pace of discussions among the parties and between the governments, and I think that's good," a British report here quoted Sandy Berger, Clinton's national security adviser, as saying in Belfast.
"The president hopes that his presence here, his private conversations and his public dialogue with the people here, will remind them what's at stake," he said.
But analysts here said it was unlikely that the talks would lead to a breakthrough in the peace process.
Clinton planned to wrap up his visit to Northern Ireland by greeting Queen Elizabeth II in London Thursday. Then he is scheduled to deliver a foreign policy address at the University of Warwick.
Before arriving in Belfast late Tuesday, Clinton stopped in Dublin, the capital of Ireland, and held talks with Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern.
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