British, Irish Prime Ministers Resume Talks With N.Irish PartiesTalks aimed at breaking the political stalemate in Northern Ireland resumed in Weston Park in Staffordshire, central England on Friday evening.British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Irish counterpart Berti Ahern were chairing the negotiations with the pro-peace agreement parties but the smaller loyalist parties, the Progressive Unionist Party (PU) and Ulster Democratic Party (UDP), were not attending. The talks resumed for their fourth day against a background of serious rioting in Belfast, sparked by nationalist opposition to an Orange Order parade. The Northern Ireland political process has been stalled over the issues of Irish Republican Army (IRA) arms decommissioning, policing and British army demilitarization. The current crisis was brought about by the resignation of David Trimble as the Northern Ireland first minister on July 1. He has refused to continue sitting in government with republicans until the IRA begins to decommission its weapons. Politicians from the province's Protestant majority and Roman Catholic minority are blaming each other for lack of progress in implementing the 1998 Good Friday peace accord, aimed at ending three decades of sectarian and political conflict that killed more than 3,000 people. |
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