Weapon pictures not entirely ruled out - Ahern

Republicans did not entirely rule out the issue of obtaining photographic evidence of IRA decommissioning, Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern said today.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams criticised the two Governments for including the issue of photographs in their draft proposals.

He said his party had made clear that the IRA regarded the DUP’s demands as an attempt at humiliation and would not countenance them.

But Mr Ahern denied that republicans had ruled them out entirely.

He said: “The refusal of photographs wasn’t as explicit as is being indicated, in my view.

“It was always part of the discussions that photographs may be necessary in order to convince the DUP to bring them over the line.

“Always we knew the issue of photographs in themselves might not be the difficulty but the publication of the photographs in such a way as would be seen as being a humiliation or a victory for one side would not be countenanced.”

Mr Ahern said the purpose of publishing the Governments’ draft deal yesterday was to show how far the parties had come in attempting a settlement.

“What was published yesterday was only a small element of quite a number of areas that have been agreed and indications that if there was an overall settlement, all the things would fit into the place.”

Mr Ahern and Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy will meet the parties next week in a bid to sort out the last remaining problem preventing the restoration of a powersharing administration.

He said the two governments would try to find a middle ground between the positions of DUP and Sinn Féin.

“After the publication of these documents, both publicly and privately, we have got indications that people involved want to try and find a solution to this.

“It’s going to be very difficult. They are diametrically opposed views. That’s why we have to renew our resolve to try and compromise and bring the sides closer together on this particular issue.”