The Ulster Unionist Party is expected to participate in today's opening session of the Stormont talks following a significant public commitment by the British Prime Minister on the issue of majority consent within Northern Ireland. Further encouragement is likely to come from a joint statement to be made this morning by Mr Blair and the Taoiseach on the issues of consent and decommissioning. A spokesman for Mr Ahern told The Irish Times the two leaders talked at length last night and agreed to issue the statement.
Mr David Trimble will assemble his negotiating team at the party's headquarters in Glengall Street to discuss tactics this morning. It is expected he will then take them from there to the afternoon's plenary talks session at Stormont.
The party will discuss whether it will take part in the main talks forum, where its members would face Sinn Fein across the table, or whether it will opt for a "proximity" process, where it would remain in offices separated from Sinn Fein and monitor the debates by closed circuit television.
The Sinn Fein leader, Mr Gerry Adams, welcomed the prospect of unionist involvement in the talks yesterday. He said: "The reality is that we all have to get around the table. I want to see the unionists there. I want David Trimble and Ian Paisley to represent their section of our people. Will they do it tomorrow? I don't know. Will they do it eventually? Yes, and the sooner they do it the better for everyone."
It appears, however, that the reopening of the talks will be fraught with complications. The DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, whose party, along with the UK Unionist Party, is boycotting the talks, has written to the chairman, Mr George Mitchell, seeking Sinn Fein's expulsion from the talks on the grounds that it is inextricably linked with the IRA. The North's Minister for Political Development, Mr Paul Murphy, said yesterday that Sinn Fein would be questioned by the chairman and the other participants at today's plenary session about its position on last week's statement by the IRA that it "would have problems with sections of the Mitchell Principles".
Mr Trimble's leadership and his approach to the talks received overwhelming support from his party's 110-member executive, which met at Glengall Street on Saturday morning.
The UUP leader's position was greatly reinforced by an article by Mr Blair, published in the unionist morning newspaper, the News Letter, on Saturday morning.
In the article, Mr Blair stated, in strong terms, his commitment to the issue of majority consent within Northern Ireland.
He said: "The consent principle is absolutely fundamental to my approach. Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom because that is the wish of a majority of the people who live here.
"I value the Union and Northern Ireland's place within it."
In a warning to Sinn Fein, Mr Blair said: "We will be holding them firmly to these commitments [the Mitchell Principles]. If they are dishonoured, for example, by any return to violence by the IRA or front organisations for, let there be no doubt that Sinn Fein will not be able to stay in the negotiations."