British Prime Minister Tony Blair remained confident Tuesday that a deal to restore power-sharing government in Northern Ireland could be reached at a make-or-break summit next week.
"I believe that a deal is possible. If we don't get one at Leeds Castle, then we have got to look for another way forward," he said, referring to the venue in southeast England of the talks that open next Wednesday.
"There will be no deal unless two things happen: one, that it is clear that any party that wants to sit in government is not connected in any shape or form with paramilitary activity and that all paramilitary activity ceases, all of it, completely," he said at a Downing Street press conference.
"The other precondition is that if that happens, if to put it bluntly Republicans give up violence, give it up completely and verifiably, then it is right that there is then a power-sharing executive with Unionism."
Power-sharing government for Northern Ireland was set out in the Good Friday accords of 1998 that put an end to three decades of sectarian violence between Catholic republicans and Protestant unionists.
The province's assembly and executive have been suspended since October 2002, however, with the hardline Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) refusing to cut any deal so long as the Irish Republican Army (IRA) disbands.
Blair said the people of Northern Ireland would have a right to be cynical if the Leeds Castle summit -- to be chaired by the prime minister and his Irish counterpart Bertie Ahern -- only produces empty words.
Sending a message to the IRA and its political wing Sinn Fein, he added that republican hopes for a more autonomous Northern Ireland would not be achieved so long as they fail to renounce violence.
The IRA has been observing "a complete cessation of military activities" since August 1994, and given up some of its arsenal, but has resisted calls to give up armed struggle.
Blair said: "If there were to be a return to full-scale violence [in Northern Ireland], that would be a complete cul-de-sac for any of the aims republicanism wants to achieve."
There could not be a lasting peace deal "on the basis of a little piece of violence," he added.
"We can't be in a situation where you say, `Well as long as there is not a bombing campaign being targeted at Britain, then so-called punishment beatings and all the rest of it are somehow legitimate.'"
Speaking in London on Monday, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said doing business with the DUP at some stage is "inevitable", after Paisley said there could be no deal with Sinn Fein until the IRA disbands.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in