By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN — Suggestions that Sinn Fein could be excluded from the Northern Ireland executive if the IRA don’t decommission arms have been dismissed by the party’s president, Gerry Adams.
He said there were no circumstances — short of breaching the Good Friday agreement — in which Sinn Fein could be expelled. He said UUP leader and first minister-designate, David Trimble, was insisting an exclusion clause in the fail-safe promised by the British government to back up the "Way Forward" document jointly issued by the taoiseach and the British prime minister after the Stormont talks marathon.
"Under the terms of the Good Friday agreement, this is not possible," Adams said. "There is no question of the British government introducing legislation to expel Sinn Fein. Mr. Blair knows this would be a breach of the Good Friday agreement.
"The Good Friday agreement review section is crystal clear. There is no requirement for any legislation at all beyond that already in place, and any British legislation has to be based on this review section."
Writing in the Irish Times and Irish News, Adams said Blair also knew there could be no renegotiation of the Agreement or the "Way Forward" blueprint. Dealing with the arms issue, Adams said he wanted to make it clear the Sinn Fein objective was to "achieve total disarmament and the complete removal of all weapons from politics in Ireland. "In my opinion decommissioning will come about when, collectively, the two governments and all the parties have created the conditions for it to be undertaken. "The issue of arms must be finally and satisfactorily settled. It cannot be used any longer to disenfranchise citizens or to deny them their rights and entitlements."
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