Tony Blair arrived at Leeds Castle in Kent today to lead all-party talks aimed at breaking the political deadlock in Northern Ireland and declared it a “moment of decision.”
Mr Blair hopes that the three-day meeting, which also involves Bertie Ahern, the Irish Taoiseach, and the US envoy for Northern Ireland, Mitchell Reiss, will lead to the reinstatement of devolved government for the province.
As the two leaders headed in to chair the meetings, Mr Blair insisted there could be no further delays on getting a deal that would see an end to IRA violence and stabilise the political institutions.
“We have to be very sure about an end to paramilitarism of whatever kind and that we are in a position to take this forward on the basis that all parts of the community in Northern Ireland share power together in the interests of the people of Northern Ireland,” Mr Blair told reporters.
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Mr Ahern backed Mr Blair’s assessment by stressing that the talks could not become just another part in a never-ending process.
“It’s time to come to the end of that sequence. We are clear what we have to do, the issues could not be clearer,” he told reporters. “It’s an issue of leadership,” he added.
But progress could be difficult with Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) entering the negotiations at loggerheads.
The DUP, the largest party in Northern Ireland, is demanding full IRA disbandment and proof that the terrorist organisation is destroying its arsenal of weapons, before they consider going back into a power-sharing executive with Sinn Fein.
“There will have to be complete decommissioning in a way that is transparent, conclusive and definitive,” a DUP spokesman insisted.
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Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein President, and Martin McGuinness, the chief negotiator, are seeking guarantees that the Stormont administration, shelved two years ago amid allegations of an IRA intelligence-gathering plot, will not be halted again to suit Unionists before they consider putting the plan to the IRA.
Mr Adams said that Protestant leaders frequently cited the IRA, and the issue of IRA arms, as an excuse not to co-operate with Sinn Fein. Mr Adams also insists that any new administration must have control of the police and justice system.
Between October 2001 to October 2003 the IRA handed over an unspecified portion of its weapons to the Canadian General John de Chastelain, head of the international disarmament body, but this was far short of the Good Friday Agreement’s stated ambition of full disarmament by mid-2000.
Further troop cuts in Northern Ireland, an amnesty for fugitive Provisionals, more policing reforms and calls for an inquiry into the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane will also be on the Sinn Fein agenda.
The Government has refused to let Northern Ireland’s legislature re-convene until the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein agree a deal, and could permanently dissolve it if the Leeds Castle talks end in deadlock.