Peace process 'in deep sense of crisis'
The North's peace process is in the grips of a "very deep sense of crisis", Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams warned today.
Speaking at Westminster ahead of a meeting tomorrow with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Mr Adams said both the Irish and British governments were contributing to the problem by suggesting that they are taking a hard-line approach to his party.
Mr Adams told journalists: "I think it is very fair to say that there is a very deep sense of crisis in the peace process at this time.
"It predates the Northern Bank robbery and the accusations that have flowed from it.
"Obviously the accusations flowing from that robbery have compounded the difficulties, but the difficulties emerged in December when Ian Paisley of the DUP rejected what were seismic initiatives on a range of issues by Republicans and the comprehensive agreement which would have flowed from that."
The £26.5m (€38.3m) Northern Bank raid in Belfast - which Northern Ireland chief constable Hugh Orde has blamed on the IRA - had been seized on by "anti-Republican elements" for their own purposes, said Mr Adams.
