February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Susan Falvella-Garraty and Ray O’Hanlon
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The White House Tuesday pledged to do what it could to restore the peace process in Northern Ireland after the announcement by the IRA that it was withdrawing from participation in the decommissioning body headed by General John de Chastelain.
"Obviously we regret any indication of backsliding on recent progress on establishing clarity on decommissioning," White House spokesman Joe Lockhart told reporters at the daily press briefing.
Lockhart said that talks were continuing in an effort to restore the peace process and it was vital for all parties to work "creatively and flexibly."
He said that the Clinton administration would work to restore the process.
"We regret any indication, no matter where it comes from, of moving backward rather than forward. The line between conflict and peace is rarely a straight line. Today’s development was not a positive development, but it’s not the end," Lockhart said.
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Lockhart declined to answer a question from one reporter as to whether President Clinton was upset that the IRA had "broken its word."
The latest setback came in the aftermath of the suspension of the Northern Ireland power-sharing Executive last week, a move that prompted President Clinton to aim an accusatory finger at the IRA.
"I regret that the IRA did not give the de Chastelain Commission a more timely commitment on arms decommissioning to maintain the momentum toward full implementation of the [Good Friday] accord — a commitment which reflects the wishes of the vast majority of people both in Ireland and in Northern Ireland," Clinton said in a statement released by the White House.
Clinton had worked intensely behind the scenes in an effort to avoid the British government’s suspension the Executive, which took place late Friday.
He spoke by phone several times with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern immediately before the British decision to suspend. White House officials said Clinton had been "deeply disappointed" that the followup report from decommissioning chairman General de Chastelain had apparently come too late to avoid London’s restoration of direct rule in Northern Ireland.
"We looked for progress to be made at a steady pace," said an administration official. "The parties know what the president meant in his statement and what he expects in the coming days."
Clinton’s statement went on to say that the updated de Chastelain report on decommissioning offered a good chance that an agreement to return power to the elected Assembly and its power-sharing Executive could yet be achieved.
British officials in Washington had told the administration that unless the IRA released a timetable for the decommissioning of arms, no timetable for restoration of the Executive’s powers would be offered by the British government.
Clinton has been under increased pressure to publicly castigate the IRA for not offering enough on decommissioning to the de Chastelain commission. Editorials is some leading U.S. newspapers in recent days have urged the president to communicate his concern directly to Sinn Féin and the IRA.
Early on Friday, Clinton had said he was holding on to hope that the suspension could be avoided. However, he told reporters, that if suspension were to take place, "it is imperative that all parties do it on terms that do not allow a backslide, and that the opportunity be taken to figure out a way to go forward that would again allow everybody to meet all the requirements that the Irish voters voted for in breathtaking margins.”
British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Peter Mandelson may come to Washington next week to meet with U.S. officials. The suspended Executive’s first minister, David Trimble, is expected in Washington this weekend.
Irish diplomats in Washington have been stressing the necessity to quickly restore powers to the Executive in Belfast "in order to avoid a dangerous political vacuum.
Last Thursday, Sinn Féin Chairman Mitchell McLaughlin met with administration officials at the White House. McLaughlin was accompanied by a group of American congressional representatives sympathetic to the nationalist perspective.
McLaughlin told the official that a suspension had to be avoided and emphasized that his party had done all it could to bring along the IRA on the road to decommissioning.
Also in Washington last week was Dermot Nesbitt, a member of Trimble’s Ulster Unionist Party and a minister in the Executive attached to the office of First Minister.
Nesbitt told the Echo that while his party recognized that the IRA cease-fire had been beneficial in its contribution to peace, it hadn’t been "moved forward."
Nesbitt said that the republican movement had to recognize that the need for decommissioning "not because the unionists say so but because that’s what democracy is about."
Irish American political reaction to suspension was largely critical. Rep. Ben Gilman, a co-chair of the congressional Ad Hoc Committee for Irish Affairs, described the British government’s move as "very disappointing and a step backward in the search for a lasting peace."
Gilman added that "those who have unilaterally changed" the terms of the Good Friday agreement and "exercised a veto over its operations" must explain their intransigence to the Irish people.