Peace process could fail over arms, warns Adams

The peace process could fail if the British government remains fixated on IRA weapons, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams warned.

The MP told party activists in Dublin said the real progress was the IRA's decision to re-enter into discussions with the disarmament commission.

He warned that if the IRA's engagement with the commission was to be successful, "others also must play their part".

He said: "The flaw in the handling of the peace process by the British Government thus far is contained in its fixation about IRA weapons, even though these weapons are silent and the IRA has maintained cessations over seven years.

"The political process could still fall if this issue is not handled properly.

"In other words, rhetoric that it is not a precondition is not enough. It needs to be removed as a precondition and restored as an objective of a peace process."

Mr Adams repeated his warning that Sinn Fein had neither "the responsibility, the obligation or the desire to shepherd the IRA into disarming on UUP or British Government terms".

The Sinn Fein leader also criticised the Ulster Unionists' ban on his party's ministers in the Stormont Executive, Martin McGuinness and Bairbre de Brun from attending cross border body meetings with their Dublin ministerial counterparts.

He told UUP leader David Trimble the people of Ireland, north and south, did not vote for an "apartheid Executive" in the North.