Britain Suspends N.Irish AssemblyBritain's Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid announced on Friday that Northern Ireland's devolved government is to be suspended from midnight on Friday (2300 GMT) despite intensive efforts to break the political deadlock.Reid said he hoped the suspension would be brief and would be lifted by the end of the weekend. It allows another six weeks for pro-peace agreement parties to find a resolution of the issues over which they are split -- decommissioning, policing, demilitarization and concerns about the stability of the institutions. Reid said significant progress had been made in the "painful and sometimes painstaking" political process. He said it would be against the interests of the peace process to "plunge Northern Ireland into an election campaign and into the more polarized political atmosphere that would inevitably entail". "I hope and believe that the necessary review can be completed very quickly and that I can lift the suspension and restore the situation before the end of the weekend." He added: "We are tantalizingly close to being in a different world in Northern Ireland. We have it in our grasp. I believe the parties should be given more time." Prime Minister Tony Blair said the peace process was at a " vital stage and should not be rushed". "I believe that all sides have made significant steps and I hope that we can make more progress once the review has been completed," he said. "When we have come so far I think most people would agree with both governments that we should allow the parties more time to bridge the remaining gaps." The suspension move came after the main pro-peace agreement parties failed to fully endorse a package by the British and Irish Governments to break the deadlock. The other two options -- an unlimited suspension or a fresh assembly election -- are believed to have been rejected on the basis that they would do more damage to the political process. On Saturday morning at Hillsborough Castle, Belfast, Reid will have talks with Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen. The current crisis was precipitated by the resignation of Trimble as first minister on July 1, because the Irish Republican Army (IRA) had not begun to disarm. It was the second time Britain took powers away from the 20- month-old administration in an attempt to resolve the question of when the IRA would disarm in support of the Good Friday peace accord of 1998. |
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