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Northern Irish Parties Clash Over IRA Arms
Northern Ireland's Ulster Unionists and Sinn Fein clashed on Tuesday over the pledge of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) to put weapons beyond use.
Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble criticized the IRA move, saying the proposals did not go far enough.
However, Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness accused Trimble of " hindering the potential for the full and early implementation of the Good Friday Agreement".
After talks with senior colleagues on Tuesday, Trimble said more progress on decommissioning was needed by Thursday to protect the future of the assembly.
On Monday, the International Decommissioning Commission reported that the IRA had agreed to a method by which it would put its arms "completely and verifiably beyond use".
The report came as the Northern Irish parties consider proposals from the British and Irish governments aimed at trying to break the political deadlock.
If the assembly is not recalled by Thursday, a new first and deputy first minister cannot be elected before the August 12 deadline.
He said that for the assembly to be recalled to re-elect a first and deputy first minister, notice to assembly members needed to be sent out in order to meet the 24 hours' notice required to call them back from the summer recess.
Meanwhile, the nationalist Social Democratic and Labor Party (SDLP) gave a positive assessment of proposals by the British and Irish governments to save the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
Although party leader John Hume described the proposals as " positive", he said a number of concerns remained, not least the failure of the government to publish the implementation plan on policing reform.
Hume said: "There are still some matters of concern but there is no doubt we have made work in that direction."
The British government has said it would allow "more time" for decisions, after all of Northern Ireland's major parties failed to react to the 10-page "Way Forward" document by the deadline of 0000 hours local time on Monday.
The current political crisis in Northern Ireland was precipitated by the resignation of Trimble as Northern Ireland first minister on July 1 because the IRA had not begun to disarm.
If the plan is rejected, it would plunge the future of the Good Friday Agreement into uncertainty, and would entail either suspending the Northern Ireland Assembly or calling new elections.
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