Dim future for deal

Although the two governments and Sinn Fein are desperately searching for a way out of the deadlock, it seems unlikely this can be achieved before the end of the year. Once January arrives, many observers believe, the political schedule precludes resurrecting negotiations until after the 2005 British general election campaign, during which electoral constraints will make hard compromises more difficult. The election is likely to be held in early May.
The British prime minister, Tony Blair, who takes over the presidency of Europe for the second six months of the year, may then not have time to work toward a new deal.
The danger of the deal unraveling beyond repair became clear after David Trimble’s Ulster Unionist Party, the most moderate of the Unionist persuasion, began to accuse the DUP of making too many concessions to Sinn Fein.
Trimble gave a press conference on Friday and accused the DUP of backtracking on its demand for a new agreement and claiming it had sold Unionists short over policing and North-South bodies.
This, in turn, forced the DUP to defend its negotiating stance by claiming it had been tougher on republicans and conceded nothing on decommissioning, cross-border institutions or policing.
The extent of the Irish government’s determination to keep its options open could be seen on Monday when it apologized to the DUP leader, the Rev. Ian Paisley, for appearing to side with Sinn Fein over whether there should be photographic evidence of IRA decommissioning.
After meeting Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams, on Monday morning, Bertie Ahern at first told reporters the DUP demand for photographs was “unworkable” but when Paisley broke off all contacts, he did an immediate about-face and apologized for his “confusing” comments.
Ahern said he still supported a demand for the IRA to allow photographs to be taken of its weapons being put beyond use and had only been reiterating the Sinn Fein position, not adopting it himself.
Ahern had also said it would be “insanity” not to find a way of settling all the issues standing in the way of power sharing. The offer of complete decommissioning was there, he said, and it should be taken up.
Speaking after meeting Blair in London on Monday afternoon, Adams said, however, that the issue of photographs was “dead and gone and buried in Ballymena,” referring to Paisley’s North Antrim constituency. “I don’t think there is any possibility of resurrecting that issue,” he said.
Meanwhile, Paisley has made it clear he requires a lot more than just one, or two, photographs of IRA decommissioning. There must be a full pictorial record of IRA disarmament, he said.
An independent photographer must, he said, record “every step taken — photographs before they [weapons] were destroyed, photographs when they are destroying and photographs of after they’re destroyed.”
On Adams’s request for a face-to-face meeting, Paisley said the Sinn F