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Britain sees chance of Northern Ireland deal
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Britain sees chance of Northern Ireland deal
Britain said yesterday it saw a chance Northern Ireland?s parties could set aside decades of hostility and reach a deal on power-sharing today, even though the main Protestant party is seeking a six-week delay.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair had given both sides ? the Protestant Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which supports British rule of Northern Ireland, and the mainly Catholic Sinn Fein, which wants a united Ireland ? until midnight today to start jointly running the province?s day-to-day affairs.
Britain?s Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain said yesterday London was sticking to its position.
The Northern Ireland Assembly, the power-sharing government set up under a 1998 peace deal, would be dissolved unless power-sharing happened by the deadline and the parties would have to accept indefinite direct rule from London with Dublin having a greater say in Northern Ireland?s affairs.
But Hain held out the prospect that if the Northern Irish parties could reach an agreement among themselves on a future date for power-sharing, that might be a way out of the impasse.
?I will be signing the restoration order today, because there?s a chance that devolution will happen tomorrow,?Hain told reporters.
After a meeting on Saturday, the leadership of the DUP, the province?s biggest party, asked for a six-week delay, Hain said.
?This is the very first time that the DUP have ever committed to a firm date for entering government with Sinn Fein ... It?s of huge historic significance,? Hain told the BBC.
But he said today?s deadline: ?You can?t stop that unless the parties themselves come forward and ... find a way forward themselves. I don?t want to stand in the way of that ... If they can agree themselves, well obviously we?ll want to listen to them,? he said.
The 1998 peace deal stemmed three decades of bloody conflict that killed about 3,600 people. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) pledged to disarm in 2005 and pursue its aim of a united Ireland by peaceful means. Its political ally is Sinn Fein.
Paul HOSKINS
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