Talks ongoing to end peace process deadlock

THE Irish and British governments were debating last night whether to continue efforts to reach agreement on the future of the Good Friday Agreement following Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams failure to make a watershed speech.

Mr Adams, in a speech to Republicans in Newry last night, said: “The Army statement is clear and unambiguous. It contains a number of highly significant and positive elements unparalleled in any previous statement by the IRA leadership either in this, or in any other phase of their struggle.”

The major obstacle in the path to peace is the failure by all sides of the Republican movement to show they are unambiguously committed to exclusively peaceful means. The former chairman of the peace process negotiations, George Mitchell, said he believed the parties could still work through their current difficulties.