The British and Irish governments have welcomed the IRA linking Mr Gerry Adams's clarifications about its future peaceful intentions to the statement it issued in mid-April, but said it still needed specific commitments that it would cease all paramilitary activity. Northern Editor Gerry Moriarty reports.
In its second statement on Tuesday night the IRA said recent clarifications provided by the Sinn Féin president "accurately reflected our position". Mr Adams said that based on the IRA commitments Assembly elections should be held in June.
"The IRA statements, even with the welcome linkage with Mr Adams's clarifications, still does not make clear that specific activities such as "punishments", exiling, procuring weapons will cease. Had we got that commitment then the governments could have put pressure on David Trimble to make sure he was up to the challenge of making the institutions secure," he added.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, and the Northern Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, are due to hold talks with the pro-Belfast Agreement parties in the coming weeks. And while the review of the Belfast Agreement, could be brought forward to June sources admitted that this would be a temporary initiative and that politics would be "parked" until September or October.
Mr Murphy confirmed on BBC yesterday that British and Irish negotiators last week failed to get a commitment from their Sinn Féin counterparts that the clarifications provided by Mr Adams would be incorporated into the IRA statement released on Tuesday.
The Sinn Féin chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, said the issue of linking the IRA statement and Mr Adams's clarifications was not a problem during the negotiations, from Sinn Fein's perspective. "But if there was a problem there isn't a problem now. The confirmatory statement is there. So on that basis will they now reverse their decision to cancel the election?" he asked.