Adams 'disappointed' at White House snub

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams admitted today he was disappointed with the snub issued to his party by the White House.

Mr Adams has been refused a meeting with both US Senator Ted Kennedy and President George Bush, keeping pressure on the Republican leadership.

“It is a disappointment because symbolically this should not be a game set,” he told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Mr Adams condemned the brutal murder of Belfast man Robert McCartney, blaming the small number of Republicans who “behave like thugs” and he claimed were trying to sully their good name.

He said those responsible should be man enough to step forward, acknowledging that the only way the McCartney family would get justice was through the courts.

But as Mr Adams admitted Republicans had “lost possession of the ball”, former US envoy Richard Haass took a stronger line, warning the Sinn Féin leader that he could yet be ostracised like Yasser Arafat.

“The risk is that over time they will suffer the fate of people such as Yasser Arafat of being ostracised,” he said. “Gerry Adams does not want to become Yasser Arafat, and decide between the olive branch and the gun.”

Mr Haass said that time was running out, and that the snub from the White House was a clear message that the US had zero tolerance for groups using force for political ends.