Sinn Féin's chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness, said he was pessimistic about the review of the Belfast Agreement.
"As to the prospects of the review, well, we can be certain of one thing. It will not lead us out of the current stalemate. It was not designed to deal with a crisis in the agreement," he said.
Mr McGuinness described the current stalemate in the peace process as "a dangerous crisis", adding that it had not begun a week ago outside a bar in Belfast.
"It is not a crisis around the IRA or IRA intentions. The institutions have been suspended now for almost 18 months. This is the fourth suspension.
"In the same period, the IRA have taken a number of initiatives to move the process forward, whereas both governments, and particularly the British government, have failed repeatedly to deliver on their commitments. In the same period, the securocrats have succeeded in stalling the process of change. But that is all they have managed to do. They have not halted this process, nor have they reversed it. Nor will we allow them to."
Mr McGuinness said that Sinn Féin had no difficulty with the review of paramilitarism. "We know that the PUP, for example, during last summer used their influence to help bring about a decrease in loyalist activity on their side. We hope to hear that this will continue.
He said it wasn't known as yet whether last week's announcement by the UDA that it was extending its ceasefire would mean anything, but Sinn Féin welcomed the fact this was signalled.
There were other issues of concern which Sinn Féin intended raising in the discussions, he said.
"There is the very big issue of the continuing British government involvement in loyalist paramilitary activity. And, of course, there is ongoing concern about the DUP involvement in Ulster Resistance."
He said it would be interesting to see how the parties addressed these concerns. Mr McGuinness said that anti-agreement unionist political forces, with the assistance of sections of the British system, were now setting the political agenda. He added that the British security system, in the form of the PSNI, had stepped in with the Stormontgate charade.
"This was pure street-theatre. In the past few weeks, it has been exposed as no more than an attempt to provide a spurious validation to David Trimble and provide a pretext for British government suspension of the institutions again."
He said that instead of holding up its end of the agreement, and in a vain attempt to preserve him as the leader of unionism, the British government had chosen to cosset Mr David Trimble.
Sinn Féin's job, however, was to confront setbacks, deal with them and move on. Mr McGuinness said that it was "absolute rubbish" to blame republicans for the breakdown in the peace process.
He added that Sinn Féin and the IRA had delivered their part of the agreement as agreed.
"The IICD presided over a substantial act of putting arms beyond use and reported this. The UUP, however, at the point of delivery on their side, effectively walked away. Only they can explain why. And likewise with the two Governments. They failed to publish their joint statement and, thus far, they have failed to follow through on a range of commitments which formed part of this agreement."
