A CALL by the Ulster Unionists yesterday for a devolved assembly for
Northern Ireland without delay could spell the end of the Government's
attempt to achieve an all-Ireland peace solution.
Ulster Unionist leader James Molyneaux declared that his party would
not take part in any further talks involving the Irish Government until
an internal political settlement in Northern Ireland has been achieved.
Ministers were taken aback and both Downing Street and Northern
Ireland Office sources said they would require ''clarification'' of Mr
Molyneaux's remarks, ironically as they are resisting Sinn Fein demands
for clarification of the UK-Irish declaration.
But they seemed not to have fully grasped that their Irish strategy
had unravelled, with both the Unionist parties rejecting further talks
with the Republic until a purely British settlement of the province's
political future was reached.
The development creates a major problem for the UK-Irish Council due
to meet in London next week, when Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Patrick
Mayhew and Irish Foreign Minister Dick Spring could find their
Governments' grand strategy for Ireland torpedoed.
A clearly alarmed Irish Government was seeking as much information
about Mr Molyneaux's news conference as possible and Irish Prime
Minister Albert Reynolds said: ''An internal settlement has not worked
in the past and will not work in the future.''
Sinn Feinn leader Martin McGuinness, was quick to demand that the
British Government made clear that the Unionists had no veto over
constitutional change in Northern Ireland and added that, if that could
be given, ''I think we are moving into a dramatically changed
situation''.
SDLP leader John Hume said the move looked like an attempt to bring
back power in Northern Ireland into purely Unionist hands.
But Mr Molyneaux, speaking on BBC Radio Four's World At One programme,
said that ''by common consent'' the Joint Declaration ''has run its
course''.
He said the ''weasel words'' of Sinn Feinn leaders Gerry Adams and
Martin McGuinness at their party's recent conference ''do not fool
anyone who knows the stuff of which they are made''. It would be a
mistake for the British Government to be ''strung along'' any longer.
Earlier at Westminster, he presented a ''Blueprint for Stability''
proposing an 85-seat assembly for the province which could deal with the
Government of the Republic on issues of common interest.
Based on the talks the British Government has had with the various
parties, Mr Molyneuax said he believed progress could be made on setting
up an Assembly ''immediately''.
This was welcomed by the Rev. Ian Paisley, whose Democratic Unionists
have already withdrawn from talks involving the Irish Government. He
said that if the Ulster Unionists ''repented of their going along to the
declaration they should join a Forum for Unionist Unity''.
With local elections looming, the Ulster Unionists, whose comments on
the declaration, which they dislike and mistrust, have been muted, feel
they have gone as far as they can. Convinced that the IRA has no
intention of laying down its arms they are turning their back on the
strategy of all-Ireland talks to which Government sources were still
clinging last night.
Mr Molyneaux made clear that his party's nine MPs would continue to
support the Government on important issues so long as it ''does not
threaten the Union''.
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