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New time-table to revive Ulster peace

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: In what was described as a last throw of the dice to revive the Northern Ireland peace process, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Irish counterpart Bertie Ahern on Thursday announced a new time-table for restoring popular rule in the province.

Speaking at a joint press conference, they also set a six-month deadline for political leaders in Northern Ireland to reach an agreement on a power-sharing arrangement failing which the British and Irish Governments would take things in their own hands to implement the Good Friday agreement.

This could be some form of direct rule from London and Dublin.

In the first phase, the Provincial Assembly at Stormont, which was suspended in October 2002 following allegations of a Republican spy ring, would be recalled next month and parties would be given two chances to reach an agreement on forming a government. If they fail, the salaries of the members would be stopped and British and Irish Governments would then work on "partnership arrangements'' to push the peace process forward.

Mr. Blair called it the "ultimate decision'' and said the current political uncertainty could not be allowed to continue indefinitely.

He urged the two main blocs— the Protestant Democratic Unionist Party and the Catholic Sinn Fein, political wing of the Irish Republican Party— to set aside mutual "suspicions'' in the larger interest of the people of Northern Ireland.

"Either we resolve (this)... or we take time on it,'' he warned.

For more than three years, Northern Ireland has been without a local government because the hardline DUP refuses to share power with Sinn Fein demanding that the IRA should disband first. They have dismissed IRA's resolve to give up arms as a tactical fudge.

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