DUP press conference: The DUP leader has insisted that republicans alone were responsible for the failure of the British-Irish governments' proposals to restore devolution. The Rev Ian Paisley repeated and stood over his comments that the IRA must be humiliated.
He said the British government should press ahead in the political process without Sinn Féin. He said significant progress was made in all areas apart from decommissioning.
"We were in the process of resolving these outstanding matters when Sinn Féin/IRA brought their discussions with the [ British] government to an end. We will continue in the task of fulfilling our manifesto pledge of seeking a fair deal for all the people of Northern Ireland," he told a press conference yesterday evening.
"It is clear from the remarks of the Prime Minister and Bertie Ahern where the responsibility for the current impasse lies. One hardly needs to read between the lines to see that it was the inability of the republican movement to decommission in the manner that was expected by the two governments. No one should be in any doubt that it was the IRA that said no," added the DUP leader.
He said that republicans "have to repent their evil deeds and show they have repented".
The IRA could not be allowed to hang on to weapons "which are covered with the blood of my friends and my neighbours", he added. Dr Paisley accused republicans of "pulling the plug" on the deal even as the "outstanding issues on decommissioning" were still under discussion on Tuesday.
"In these circumstances it is important that the government should proceed on the basis that they have set out and with the parties which are willing to sign up to the arrangements. In the past the process has continued whenever our support is absent.
"Now it is time, if republicans are not prepared to decommission in a manner which will give confidence to the community, to continue without them until they can meet the terms required by the government in their paper.
"We believe that in the other aspects of the paper we have achieved very considerable progress. Even Bertie Ahern conceded that it was our right to argue for new arrangements in relation to the running of devolved institutions."
Dr Paisley said the DUP had laid to rest the argument that the Belfast Agreement was an "invincible, infallible and unchanging" deal. "We have succeeded in the talks to fulfil the mandate that we were given and our Prime Minister accepted that the DUP got the changes they demanded."
He said the head of the decommissioning body, Gen John de Chastelain, told him that when he met the IRA it would not talk about "any matter concerning decommissioning", in relation to inventories, independent witnesses or photographs.
Dr Paisley said there was a requirement for photographs in the governments' blueprint. The DUP wanted a full photographic record of "the complete decommissioning process so that the man in the little garden, that I have described, who is worried about the future can see for himself that they have been decommissioned".
Dr Paisley said Sinn Féin was not a democratic party and he would only talk to Sinn Féin when the IRA gave up their weapons, ended their criminality, and it was clear it was a peaceful party.
"We do not talk to those who are terrorists and hold onto their weapons. Once that finishes then we can talk with them. It doesn't mean we will have a love-in with them. It does not mean we accept their pernicious principles, but it does mean we will recognise their mandate and talk to them."