It is a measure of the commitment of the participants in the Belfast Agreement - as well as an indicator of the underlying strength of the Agreement itself - that for all the hardening rhetoric of recent days, the decommissioning problem has not led to an outright rift. At least not yet.
There is a recognition on all sides that there is some time in hand to resolve the issue. But it is not unlimited. If the next phase of construction - the setting up of the shadow executive and the NorthSouth and the British-Irish councils - does not get under way by the end of this month, a dangerous slippage will have begun. A compromise will be found, Deputy First Minister, Mr Seamus Mallon, declared on Thursday. But as he also told the British Labour Party conference at Blackpool earlier in the week, the beast of the old politics of Northern Ireland is not yet dead. Its destructive capacity could emerge again to threaten the new democracy, still in construction.
A series of meetings and telephone conferences between political leaders during the week has not brought any breakthrough. Rather has the political climate deteriorated, as unionists and nationalists appear to harden their positions. The room for manoeuvre is diminishing too. Even Mr David Trimble's core supporters in the Ulster Unionist Party cannot assure him of continuing support unless he secures some tangible progress on the disposal of weapons. Sinn Fein declares that it does not have IRA decommissioning within its gift and it is said that the leadership itself could be destabilised if it seeks to force the pace on the elimination of the IRA's arsenals.
The letter of the Agreement supports Sinn Fein's position that it is entitled to its places in the Executive without a start on decommissioning. It says that decommissioning of paramilitary weapons must be completed by May 2000 but does not say when this process must begin. There is also however an over-arching requirement that all of the Agreement's objectives must be advanced in parallel. It is not just that section of the community represented by Sinn Fein which needs proof of change. Prisoners have been released, the commission on the RUC is at work, troops have been reduced and taken off the streets. But it cannot all be one-way traffic. The people represented by parties other than those with paramilitary wings also need their confidence-building measures.
Mr Trimble has chosen his language very carefully in the past two weeks to give as much latitude as he can to Sinn Fein and to General de Chastelain's Independent Commission. Political and official minds have been turning to possible solutions which might involve the agreement of a timetable which could allow the General to certify that a process is under way while allowing the paramilitaries to slow actual decommissioning until the new institutions are in operation. But Sinn Fein and the IRA, it seems, are resisting this. Even the agreement of a timetable within which weapons would be destroyed or neutralised is reportedly unacceptable to them.
Sinn Fein and the IRA may be able to convince themselves that they are technically on solid ground. But like the motorist who scrambles from the wreck of his car, telling anyone who cares to listen that the lights were green, they may be heading for a fearful confrontation. If they end up bringing down Mr Trimble, will they feel more confident or comfortable dealing with a mainstream unionism which has learned the bitter lesson of seeking compromise and accommodation? The onus is upon them to respond to the political realities of the situation and to seek to fulfil the spirit, not just the letter, of the Belfast Agreement. The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has already called upon them to agree a schedule for decommissioning. It is the very least which will be necessary if a fatal confrontation is to be avoided.