No quick resolution of NI talks deadlock

Hopes of a quick fix solution to Northern Ireland’s latest row faded tonight as Sinn Féin and the Ulster Unionists clashed over who was to blame for the North’s political deadlock.

As Ulster Unionists rolled out the first broadcast of their Assembly Election campaign, Sinn Féin’s Alex Maskey accused the party of “walking away” from a solution to the arms decommissioning dispute.

Unionists countered by urging republicans to focus instead on what they must do to get the peace process moving again.

While insisting Sinn Féin’s dialogue with David Trimble was a “hugely important development” which “must be protected,” Mr Maskey said the UUP had not fulfilled its part of the peace process deal which collapsed last Tuesday.

The South Belfast Assembly candidate also accused unionists of putting up “new demands”.

He said: “I believe the UUP have effectively walked away from this phase of the process.

“I could be wrong. I hope that I am wrong.

“Mr Trimble needs to tell us. He needs to make his position clear. It is now over to David Trimble and the UUP leadership to decide.”

With Sinn Féin insisting it had put forward proposals to advance the process in recent days, a UUP spokesman said they had also tabled suggestions.

“The Ulster Unionist Party has not walked away,” he insisted.

“We have made our position clear to republicans as we did before Tuesday’s sequence was run.

“If republicans are committed to finding a solution, they need to focus on what is required from them to get things back on track and spend less time indulging in the blame game on the airwaves and the newspaper columns.”

Last Tuesday’s deal involving the British and Irish governments, republicans and Ulster Unionists stumbled over a lack of clarity around the IRA’s latest act of decommissioning.

Although the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) claimed the IRA’s disarmament move was “larger” than ever before, unionists were alarmed at the lack of detail about what weapons were destroyed and how much of the Provisionals’ arsenal remained.

David Trimble immediately put on hold a series of choreographed moves until more clarity over decommissioning could be achieved.

However IICD head General John de Chastelain was unable to provide more detail because the IRA had invoked a confidentiality clause in the decommissioning legislation.

As Mr Trimble prepared to inform party officers tonight in Belfast he was calling off Wednesday’s meeting of their 900 member ruling council, British and Irish government sources were downbeat about the talks.

“Certainly a bit of bad temper seems to have crept in,” a Whitehall source said.

“It seems the best we can hope for is that we preserve many of the positives out of last week’s deal as possible and then pick this up again after the November 26 election.”