Blair  ALSO: Full text of Northern Ireland plan  MESSAGE BOARD: Peace in Northern Ireland?  IN-DEPTH SPECIAL: The Path to Peace Northern Ireland Timeline

July 5, 1999
Web posted at: 3:17 p.m. EDT (1917 GMT)

From staff and wire reports

LONDON (CNN) -- Proposals presented last week to break a deadlock in the Northern Ireland peace process offer "the best chance for peace we will have in this generation," British Prime Minister Tony Blair told his Parliament on Monday.

Blair and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern ended a week of talks with the parties in the United Kingdom region last Friday with no end to an impasse over a timetable for the decommissioning of arms by the Irish Republican Army.

The Protestant Ulster Unionists have refused to allow the Catholic Sinn Fein -- which they believe to be the political arm of the IRA -- to take its place on the governing council unless the militant IRA turns in its weapons.

Sinn Fein has argued that it has no control over the IRA and that the Good Friday accords signed by the parties last year do not require decommissioning in order for the republican party to take its two seats on the 12-member executive.

"Both sides need certainty," Blair said before the House of Commons. "Unionists want certainty that decommissioning will happen and a guarantee that if it does not, they will not be left in an executive with those who refuse to do so."

"Republicans want the certainty that Unionists are serious about participating in a genuine, inclusive government," he said. "Our agreement last Friday, in my view, provides both."

The prime ministers' proposal calls for a clear promise from the IRA to disarm -- made shortly after the formation of the new Northern Ireland government -- and the actual turning in of weapons "within weeks."

If Canadian Gen. John de Chastelain and his International Commission on Decommissioning determines that either side is not living up to its commitments, Blair said, the executive government would be "suspended."

"If last Friday's agreement is put in place, then we will know within days if the paramilitaries are serious about decommissioning their weapons," Blair said. "If they are, the real peace can come. If they are not, then we will know that the challenge of true democracy was too much for those linked to paramilitary groups. Either way we will know."

Adams vows Sinn Fein will stay

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble, who would be the province's first minister under the new government, said the proposals essentially give veto power to the paramilitary groups.

The prime minister is asking Unionists to gamble on an "ineffective and unfair safety net," said Trimble, who is also a member of the British House of Commons.

But Blair said the Unionists misunderstood the proposals. If any party reneges on its commitments, he said, that party is out of the government. In that case, Blair said, "The blame for default is clear, and the (remaining) parties are then free to move on in an executive without the defaulting party,"

"I cannot make the other parties agree to a new executive," he said. "I cannot force anyone to sit in the government with anyone else. But I can make sure that Sinn Fein do not continue in an executive with the Ulster Unionists should there be a default of the de Chastelain process."

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams disputed Blair's assertions that his party would lose its position in the government if the IRA fails to disarm. There is "no question of the British government introducing legislation to expel Sinn Fein," Adams was quoted as saying in Dublin and Belfast newspapers.

He said such a suggestion was "in breach" of the Good Friday accords.

Whether or not Blair's assurances will be enough to satisfy the Unionists by the July 15 deadline is unclear. Many Unionists said they felt betrayed by the plan, while other observers thought Blair's arguments may be having some success.

"They've got to see the color of Tony Blair's money. What exactly will he do if the IRA does not deliver?" said Arther Aughey, a political lecturer at the University of Ulster.

Aughey said Ulster was in "the blackest of moods" immediately following the announcement of Blair and Ahern's plan, but he has since perceived a subtle shift among the pro-British Protestants.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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