New blow for N. Ireland talks
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Rev Ian Paisley following last week's elections in Northern Ireland
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BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- Efforts to restore power sharing in Northern Ireland have received another blow with a renewed pledge by the leader of the hard-line Democratic Unionists Party (DUP) not to work with Sinn Fein.
DUP leader Rev. Ian Paisley said ahead of a meeting with Britain's minister for Northern Ireland that he would never agree to form a government with Sinn Fein, describing its members as "armed terrorists."
Sinn Fein is the political ally of the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
Paisley was due to lead a delegation to a meeting with Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy Monday -- the party's first meeting with a British minister since the party won 30 seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly last week.
Paisley has said he would destroy Northern Ireland's 1998 Good Friday peace agreement . He told BBC radio Monday ahead of the meeting his views had not changed since the election.
"The election result shows us that the majority, a large majority, of unionists will not buy into this agreement ... it's not an arguable point, it's a fact.
"I don't accept the principle that we must sit down with armed terrorists that have enough weapons in their possession to blow up the whole of Northern Ireland," he said.
"A democrat will not sit down with armed gangsters and murderers to negotiate the future of this country, and that is a position that we are going to cling firmly to."
The DUP ousted the moderate Ulster Unionists (UUP) in the province-wide elections to become the biggest party among the Protestant majority, who favor continued political union with Britain, by winning more seats than any of its rivals in the 108-seat assembly.
Sinn Fein beat the moderate Social Democratic and Labor Party (SDLP), to mark a polarization of the political landscape in British-ruled Northern Ireland.
Murphy, who met SDLP, UUP and Sinn Fein members at Hillsborough on Saturday, insisted the Good Friday deal was the only way forward for the peace process.
"The DUP has traditionally and historically been the most devolutionist of all the parties," he told Reuters at the weekend. "I'm sure they want a restoration of the assembly and the government."
He told the BBC at the weekend: "The agreement is not dead, because most people in Northern Ireland want it to work. I am not underestimating the difficulties, but I am not unhopeful that we can make progress."
The DUP won 30 seats, while the moderate Ulster Unionist Party, led by David Trimble, had 27 seats. Sinn Fein won 24 seats, while the SDLP had 18. Other parties won nine seats.
