No deal at Northern Irish talks

LEEDS CASTLE, England – Talks aimed at forging a comprehensive peace settlement for Northern Ireland ended without a deal on Saturday, despite Britain and Ireland saying they were close to securing full disarmament by the IRA.

Faced with their third frustrating failure in the past two years to restore home rule in Belfast, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Irish counterpart Bertie Ahern insisted a historic breakthrough had been tantalisingly within sight. “After three days of intensive discussion we believe we can resolve the issues to do with ending paramilitary activity and putting weapons beyond use,” Blair told a news conference at Leeds Castle, southeast of London.”The governments believe that what is on offer now is reasonable in its substance and historic in its meaning.”But they admitted they had not been able to broker a deal on restoring the power-sharing government at the heart of the Good Friday deal, with the hardline Protestant Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) demanding a re-writing of the 1998 pact.”There is not yet comprehensive agreement on how to change … the Good Friday Agreement without damaging the fundamentals of the fair and inclusive basis of the agreement,” said Blair.Further talks were planned to be held this week.The two premiers had hoped that three days of talks behind the moat and walls of the self-proclaimed “loveliest castle in the world” would yield a new agreement on sharing power between divided Catholic and Protestant communities in the province.But they faced an uphill battle trying to broker agreement between the DUP, the dominant Protestant party of 78-year-old cleric Ian Paisley, and Sinn Fein, political ally of the IRA.Paisley, who never supported the Good Friday deal and played no part in negotiating it, denounces Sinn Fein as terrorists and the DUP refuses to talk to it.He demands the IRA disbands.Sources involved in the negotiations said the governments had an outline of what the IRA was prepared to do as part of a wider deal with the DUP.No details have been made public, and there will be great interest in whether the outlawed Catholic guerrilla group will release its own statement on its position in the coming days.- Nampa-Reuters”After three days of intensive discussion we believe we can resolve the issues to do with ending paramilitary activity and putting weapons beyond use,” Blair told a news conference at Leeds Castle, southeast of London.”The governments believe that what is on offer now is reasonable in its substance and historic in its meaning.”But they admitted they had not been able to broker a deal on restoring the power-sharing government at the heart of the Good Friday deal, with the hardline Protestant Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) demanding a re-writing of the 1998 pact.”There is not yet comprehensive agreement on how to change … the Good Friday Agreement without damaging the fundamentals of the fair and inclusive basis of the agreement,” said Blair.Further talks were planned to be held this week.The two premiers had hoped that three days of talks behind the moat and walls of the self-proclaimed “loveliest castle in the world” would yield a new agreement on sharing power between divided Catholic and Protestant communities in the province.But they faced an uphill battle trying to broker agreement between the DUP, the dominant Protestant party of 78-year-old cleric Ian Paisley, and Sinn Fein, political ally of the IRA.Paisley, who never supported the Good Friday deal and played no part in negotiating it, denounces Sinn Fein as terrorists and the DUP refuses to talk to it.He demands the IRA disbands.Sources involved in the negotiations said the governments had an outline of what the IRA was prepared to do as part of a wider deal with the DUP.No details have been made public, and there will be great interest in whether the outlawed Catholic guerrilla group will release its own statement on its position in the coming days.- Nampa-Reuters