Ahern and Blair meet to restore Assembly
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern met his British counterpart Tony Blair tonight as government efforts to restore the Northern Ireland Assembly were stepped up.
The two leaders discussed efforts to revive the Stormont power-sharing executive at a summit in Chequers as republicans warned time was running out for a deal to be reached.
Devolution in Northern Ireland has been suspended since last October amid allegations of an IRA spy ring operating at Stormont.
Mr Ahern and Mr Blair have been involved in discussions in recent days with Sinn Féin leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, who have demanded fresh elections to the Assembly take place this autumn.
However, unionists have been insistent that if the Assembly is to be restored and elections are to go ahead in November, there must be a declaration soon from the IRA of an end to all paramilitary activity.
Sinn Féin chief negotiator Mr McGuinness tonight said Mr Blair had to make a decision in the next two to three weeks.
The Mid Ulster MP said he believed elections could be held this year but insisted the “window of opportunity” was narrow.
He said: “I think that Tony Blair has a big decision to make and he has to make that decision, in my view, over the next two or three weeks.”
After a meeting of Sinn Féin leaders in Dublin, Mr McGuinness spoke of republicans’ frustration at the slow progress in resolving the current impasse in the peace process.
Meanwhile, the Ulster Unionists’ 110-strong party executive met today to discuss the British/Irish joint declaration on the way forward.
Party sources said members considered proposals from the leadership but did not take a vote and agreed to continue considering the declaration.
The Irish and British Governments’ joint declaration was given to the parties in March in an attempt to move the political process forward.
It outlined plans to reduce the number of troops in Northern Ireland to 5,000, on condition of “acts of completion” from paramilitaries.
Efforts to restore the Assembly and executive stumbled in May following the cancellation of the Stormont elections.
Mr Blair pulled the plug on the election four days into the campaign because he was not convinced that republicans had provided enough guarantees about an end to all paramilitary activity by the IRA.
Mr Adams had insisted publicly that the IRA would do nothing to undermine the Good Friday Agreement, but unionists had wanted him and the IRA to declare an end to IRA intelligence gathering, weapons procurement, targeting, training, punishment attacks and involvement in all other violence.
In a bid to move the peace process forward, Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy has in recent days announced a four-member commission to monitor the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and paramilitary ceasefires.
The commission is made up of and Irish representative, two British government nominees and a United States representative.
They are: Joe Brosnan, who was an official at the Department of Justice, former Northern Ireland Assembly Speaker Lord Alderdice, John Grieve, who headed the Metropolitan Police’s anti-terrorist unit and former CIA deputy director Richard Kerr.
Sinn Féin has declared it will not co-operate with the commission.
The anti-Good Friday Agreement Democratic Unionists have also been critical of the new body, with East Derry MP Gregory Campbell denouncing it as a “sticking plaster solution which is more damaging than positive for the unionist community”.
