McGuinness warns of new crisis over 'nuclear' threat
Northern Ireland faces a ‘‘huge crisis’’ if unionists persist in demanding sanctions against republicans, it was claimed today.
Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness attacked a threat by David Trimble to use the ‘‘nuclear option’’ to pull down the powersharing Assembly if Secretary of State Dr John Reid fails to act.
‘‘I think there’s every danger of us reaching a huge crisis within this process when I hear for example David Trimble this morning talking about the 'nuclear option'.
‘‘We know what happened at Hiroshima, we know what happened at Nagasaki. Why are we talking about making the North of Ireland effectively a political wasteland?’’ he said.
The Sinn Féin Minister was speaking ahead of a debate by Northern Ireland Assembly members on the state of the IRA ceasefire in the wake of allegations that the IRA is still targeting senior politicians.
A motion tabled by Mr Trimble has called on Dr Reid to make an assessment of the IRA’s ceasefire amid allegations that the group is targeting leading Conservatives and was behind the March 17 break-in at the top security Castlereagh police station.
Insisting that republicans’ commitment to the process was rock solid, Mr McGuinness blamed faceless ‘‘securocrats’’ in the British establishment for briefing against republicans in a bid to wreck the process.
‘‘I’m well aware of who these people are and where their allegiances lie and I also believe that there are people within the British government who are aware of the dangers these people represent.’’
‘‘David Trimble needs to get to grips with what’s going on. He needs to recognise that Sinn Féin is dedicated to this process.
The Sinn Féin leader denied that the IRA represented a threat to the peace process.
‘‘In the course of the last five years, the IRA hasn’t even fired a shot at a member of the RUC. They haven’t even fired a shot at any member of the British Army.
‘‘That’s the commitment that has come from the IRA and they have shown that not only are they prepared to engage in cessation but they are also prepared to engage in hugely contentious issues like the issue of putting weapons beyond use.’’
Earlier, Mr Trimble said Dr Reid had a duty to take action against Sinn Féin over recent incidents. If Dr Reid failed to do this, unionists would be left only with the ‘‘nuclear option’’ of bringing down the Good Friday Agreement process altogether, Mr Trimble added.
‘‘It is a matter of maintaining the integrity of the process,’’ he said.
‘‘It is (Dr Reid’s) duty to act in the public interest in this matter and maintain the integrity of the process. It shouldn’t be left to us, because unfortunately the only weapon we have is one which would destroy the whole process.
‘‘If the Government wants this process to succeed, the Government has a responsibility to act, because we want to see the agreement fulfilled in terms of delivering peace and democracy to the people of Northern Ireland.’’
