Talks to resolve Northern Ireland’s political stalemate have reached the “end of the road,” the Sinn Fein party said, but London said it hoped a power-sharing government could be formed.
After three weeks of negotiations to form a power-sharing executive in the province, the Irish Republican party Sinn Fein on Sunday said that no deal had been reached.
Sinn Fein, representing Catholic Irish nationalists, and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) of the pro-British Protestants, had until yesterday afternoon to reach an agreement or governance of the province could be transferred to London.
“Today we have come to the end of the road,” Sinn Fein Northern Ireland leader Michelle O’Neill said. “The talks process has run its course and Sinn Fein will not be nominating for the position of speaker or for the executive office tomorrow [Monday].”
DUP Leader Arlene Foster gave a similar assessment of the Belfast talks, which have been chaired by Secretary of State for Northern Ireland James Brokenshire.
“Regrettable the reality is that sufficient progress was not achieved in the time available to form a new executive,” said Foster, who served as first minister before the executive collapsed.
The political crisis began when O’Neill’s predecessor, Martin McGuinness, stepped down in protest at the handling of a botched “green” energy program by Foster.
McGuinness died on Tuesday last week of a rare heart condition.
Despite Sinn Fein’s assertion that talks were over, the British government said it was still determined to see a “functioning executive” put in place.
“Even at this stage I urge political parties to agree to work to form an executive and provide people here with the strong and stable devolved government that they want,” Brokenshire said.
The discussions have also been keenly followed by Dublin, with Irish Minister of Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan calling for power-sharing to be re-established.
“I therefore urge the parties to avail of the remaining time available to re-engage on the few outstanding issues that divide them,” he said on Sunday.
If Northern Ireland’s main parties fail to reach a deal, Brokenshire will intervene, which could lead to direct rule from London being imposed.
The minister could also call fresh elections, although those held this month following McGuinness’s resignation failed to resolve the differences between Sinn Fein and the DUP.
Sinn Fein won 27 seats in the 90-seat assembly in the March 2 election, while the DUP took 28, with unionist parties losing their absolute majority in Northern Ireland’s legislature for the first time since the creation of the province in 1921.
The controversial energy scheme which prompted Sinn Fein to pull the plug on the executive was introduced by Foster when she was minister of the economy.
Its failure is expected to cost taxpayers up to £500 million (US$629 million) and Sinn Fein has said it will not share power with Foster until the conclusion of a public inquiry into the program.
The political deadline in Northern Ireland comes just ahead of British Prime Minister Theresa May launching Britain’s exit from the EU tomorrow, when the government is due to trigger Article 50 of the bloc’s Lisbon Treaty.
Central to Brexit discussions will be the fate of the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, which remains an EU member.
‘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