As the Belfast Assembly went into summer recess yesterday, the Progressive Unionist Party cautioned Sinn Fein and other parties to be careful about the statements they make leading up to the review of the Belfast Agreement next September.
Mr David Ervine, the leader of the PUP which has close links with the Ulster Volunteer Force, said the situation in the North was "jittery"' and that "it wouldn't take much to push one side or the other over the edge".
The PUP met a delegation from Sinn Fein yesterday, and Mr Ervine said he came away from the meeting with the impression that the IRA ceasefire is secure and Sinn Fein is committed to the peace process.
Mr Ervine said this week's IRA statement was a "whammy" and was seen by unionists as an "implicit threat"' but he did not anticipate anything negative from it from loyalist paramilitaries.
"The republican movement, when they make statements like that, are acting like a recruiting sergeant for the No camp in unionism," he said.
Mr Ervine said he was not comfortable about the IRA statement or Sinn Fein's response to it. "I think what we need to do is calmly assess and watch what the IRA now do. I think that we need to be circumspect, that they have to note the damage they do in my community when they make such comments and they have to be aware of it."
The UVF is currently undertaking a three-week review of the peace process following the recent collapse of the North's multi-party executive. The organisation is expected to make a statement on its deliberations in early to mid-August. Mr Ervine dismissed claims that the UVF could help advance the decommissioning process by disarming first.
Sinn Fein's senior negotiator, Mr Gerry Kelly, called on loyalists to examine their own language rather than accusing republicans of aggravating the current situation. For Mr Ervine to "accuse another organisation of upping the ante when there have been 160 loyalist attacks over the last year . . puts it in context that he was doing a bit of grandstanding," he said.
Speaking after the meeting with the PUP, Mr Kelly refused to comment on whether the IRA statement had exacerbated tensions between the North's political parties. Sinn Fein's national executive meets in Dublin today to consider a response to recent developments in the peace process.
Meanwhile, Mr Norman Boyd of the Northern Ireland Unionist Party which recently broke away from the UK Unionist Party, called for a referendum on the Belfast Agreement as part of its review. If this was not done, the British government would be "enforcing a form of government against the will of the people and they will ignore the voice of the majority of unionists to their cost, as the whole political process will collapse," he said.