Prospects for an early resolution of the decommissioning impasse have receded following a strong denial from the IRA that it was prepared to trade weapons for British army demilitarisation.
In a briefing to media sources last night, an IRA representative said the organisation had not made any proposal for decommissioning in parallel with demilitarisation, that no timeframe for weapons disposal had been offered to Gen. de Chastelain and that no gesture on decommissioning was envisaged.
It is relatively unusual for the republican paramilitaries to respond directly to media reports, but the IRA source specifically rejected "speculation" in the media over the weekend and since about the content of the proposals made by the IRA to the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning before the suspension of the new institutions in the North.
The IRA source emphatically rejected the reports as "totally wrong" in making a linkage between decommissioning and demilitarisation.
The IRA source reiterated that any proposals the organisation made to Gen. de Chastelain were off the table following the withdrawal of the IRA interlocutor from discussions with the decommissioning body.
Observers drew the implication from the IRA briefings that the May 22nd deadline for decommissioning mentioned in the Belfast Agreement would not be met and that other methods of dealing with the weapons issue would have to be considered.
The latest intervention by the IRA may have been intended to reassure its supporters following the recent wave of media speculation. While no details of the IRA proposals were given in the briefings, Gen. de Chastelain said in his last report that the IRA was prepared to consider putting arms and explosives "beyond use" in the context of the implementation of the Belfast Agreement and the removal of "the causes of conflict".
No further detail of the IRA's offer was given by the general, although it was clear from last night's briefing that republicans were not prepared to consider any gesture which they would regard as having connotations of "surrender".
Earlier, there had been angry reaction from northern unionists and British security sources to suggestions that British army and IRA weapons might be jointly decommissioned as part of a Day of Reconciliation.
The Day of Reconciliation proposal originally arose during the Hillsborough talks last Easter. It was suggested by Dublin civil servants, but there was little detail. Recent media reports suggested, however, that a token amount of IRA arms would be destroyed along with loyalist and British army weapons.
A Downing Street spokesman said last night that "the idea of some act of reconciliation has not been fleshed out in any way" and there had never been any suggestion of "equivalence" as suggested in the British media, i.e., between the British army and paramilitaries.
The Taoiseach told the Dail that discussions about an act of reconciliation "almost came to fruition last year but the idea was rejected by one party, Sinn Fein".