IRA DECOMMISSIONING ‘MAY BE RESOLVED’

A SENIOR republican source has said that the arms issue could be settled but not on British terms or by ultimatums from unionists.

However, the statement which made no mention of the a timescale, leaves the position of First Minister David Trimble even more perilous as he has threatened to resign if decommissioning is not achieved by the end of this month.

Mr Trimble hit back at the IRA statement and said that such republicans were “not living in the real world”.

He added: "It is dishonest to represent decommissioning as just a unionist demand.

"It is the requirement of the Agreement backed by the overwhelming majority of people in Northern Ireland and in the republic.

Speaking at an engagement with the Taoiseach in Carfin, Scotland, the Secretary of State Dr John Reid said: "I welcome the reaffirmation from the IRA that they are behind the peace process. As far as the British Government is concerned, we will meet our responsibilities on policing and security normalisation to move this process forward.

"But it takes all of us – and I hope the IRA and Sinn Fein will equally be prepared to give some movement here - to give a bit of reassurance to everyone of that commitment because either we all move forward together on this or we all fall back.

"I think all of us have responsibilities and certainly as far as the Government is concerned we are prepared to move the process forward on security normalisation and to bridge the gap on policing.

He added that he “hoped the IRA and Sinn Fein would be prepared to move further on their part to reassure the people of Northern Ireland and then we can all move forward together”. (SP)