Sinn Fein will return to the Northern talks in the future even if it is expelled at tomorrow's session in Dublin, a member of the party's negotiating team has said.
Cllr Alex Maskey said the party would not leave the talks willingly and would fight any attempt to have it expelled. But asked if, should the expulsion go ahead, Sinn Fein would return to the talks on being invited back, he said it would.
Mr Maskey was speaking after Saturday's meeting of the party's ardchomhairle in Dublin. Before the meeting began the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, had said he did not know what the party would do if it was "kicked out".
"I am very angry that I have to deal with this ongoing campaign to marginalise the people we represent, but we haven't discussed what we will do if we are put out," he said.
"We won't even consider what we will do until we have exhausted every challenge to ensure that we stay in those talks representing and being part of, as we have seen so far, the constructive effort to bring about a settlement."
Mr Maskey, a member of the ardchomhairle, said after the meeting he did not envisage his party "sitting quietly and meekly [after] being sent to the back of the room for any length of time".
The party would fight strongly any attempt to indict it at the talks. "That is on the basis that we want to be and are determined to be involved in the talks process."
Asked if that meant the party would return after being expelled for a period, he said: "Oh yes, we're defending our right to be involved in an all-inclusive process and we will be in that all-inclusive process".
Speaking to reporters as he entered the meeting, which had been scheduled before the latest talks crisis, Mr Adams said the pressure to have Sinn Fein expelled was coming from the Ulster Unionist Party "and other unionists who have seized on these two recent killings and are attempting to bully the governments into breaking their own rules".
"It is clear that David Trimble will not be satisfied until he has destroyed the possibility of bringing about the type of change that is required for a truly democratic peace settlement."
Mr Adams said he had "disavowed, called for and worked for an end to all killings". Yet on foot of an assessment from a "discredited RUC paramilitary force" Sinn Fein was facing expulsion.
"Over 100 people have been shot in the last 20 months by loyalists. Where are the forensics, evidence and assessments in all of this? I think it is time that this double standard of continually putting Sinn Fein to the test at the behest of unionists is put to one side."
Sinn Fein was at the talks on the basis of its mandate. "We don't and have never said we represent the IRA. Any attempt to draw a comparison between Sinn Fein and the UDP is entirely bogus, just as any attempt to draw a comparison between the expulsion of the UDP and the attempt to expel Sinn Fein is bogus."
Sinn Fein had not broken any commitments and he defied anyone to present evidence to the contrary. "I hear some speculation that there is some sort of an exit strategy involved here. That is absolute nonsense. Republicans are committed to making this process work."
He said the issue posed a "big political question" for the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern. "Is an Irish Government, led by a party which has indeed made a contribution going back some time to build this peace process, expelling the representatives of people, especially in the North, on the assessment by the RUC and at the behest of the unionists?
"The governments may decide with political expediency that they will put Sinn Fein out for a week, two weeks, three weeks and keep the unionists satisfied in an attempt to silence us and then bring us back in again. We and our voters and supporters refuse to accept that type of strategy."
On the possibility of a legal challenge to an attempt to expel Sinn Fein,
??????ein was accepting it would be expelled. "But if it does happen, it will take place within the jurisdiction of an Irish Government under rules which are British legal rules.".
Mr Maskey said the party had received preliminary legal advice, but no decision had been taken. But if legal action was taken, it was likely to be post-expulsion and not an advance attempt to prevent it happening.
