North envoy expected to announce resignation

The US envoy to Northern Ireland, Richard Haass, is expected to announce his resignation next week amid growing speculation that he has become disillusioned with the Northern Ireland post.

Mr Haass is said to have accepted the presidency of the Council on Foreign Relations, a high-powered group of business, union and political leaders that advises government on foreign relations.

A Council on Foreign Relations spokeswoman yesterday declined to say if Mr Haass would be taking up the post but said an announcement would be made next Monday.

However, a well-placed source in the council said it was very likely Mr Haass would be named as the new president of the council.

Meanwhile, Thomas R Donahue, a union leader who ended his 11-year tenure on the CFR board last summer, said he was told last week Haass was on a short-list for the presidency of the organisation.

“I think he would make an excellent president of the Council on Foreign Relations,” he said.

“He has a strong understanding of foreign policy and he acquitted him with great merit in the Northern Ireland post,” he said.

If Mr Haass leaves his role, it will follow months of speculation about his disillusionment with the post.

One prominent Irish American advocate said Mr Haass told her he wanted to get out of the North because he didn’t feel it was earning the attention of the Bush administration.

Mr Haass has a strong track record in foreign relations and served on the National Security Council under the first administration before working in the Brookings Institute, a Washington-based foreign policy think-tank.

In the Northern Ireland post, he was strongly against UUP leader David Trimble’s plan to suspend the assembly last year if the IRA did not decommission its weapons by January.

However, events overtook the crisis, and the assembly and executive were suspended after accusations that Sinn Féin were running a spy ring from within the government.