Word: iras
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...hadn?t been so na?ve as to expect a smooth implementation of last year?s historic Good Friday Agreement. "I am not surprised, but I am disappointed," said Mitchell, after holding meetings in Belfast with Northern Ireland?s political parties. His job got a lot harder overnight, following an IRA statement that not only dimmed hopes of imminent disarmament but actually contained veiled threats of renewed violence, and also blamed the collapse of the peace process on Britain for failing to stand up to the Ulster Unionists. The Unionists had brought the process crashing to a halt last week...
...keep talking being about the only thing they?re able to agree on. Trimble and his Ulster Unionist Party brought last year?s peace agreement crashing to a standstill Thursday by refusing to take their seats in the new Northern Ireland assembly, insisting they would boycott until the IRA begins to disarm. Having failed to navigate a way through the impasse, Britain picked up the phone overnight and summoned former U.S. senator George Mitchell to reprise the crucial mediating role he played in last year?s agreement. "They?re hoping he?ll pull something out of a hat," says TIME...
...peace process under review after David Trimble's Ulster Unionist Party refused to take its seats at the head of the new Northern Ireland Assembly created by the agreement. The Unionists rejected London's plan allowing the Republican Sinn Fein to take their seats in the assembly before their IRA allies had begun to disarm. Although the Good Friday plan required the IRA to disarm only by next May, hard-liners in Trimble's party had threatened to mutiny if the party entered the assembly before the IRA had begun turning over its weapons...
...ordering them away from the front line and up the hill for tea and sandwiches at the local minister's house. For the first time in memory, they listened. But for how long? Protestant leader David Trimble has set a condition for his restless constituency?s newfound docility: An IRA statement confirming disarmament plans. British Prime Minister Tony Blair is going ahead without it, and by Parliamentary decree Northern Ireland?s new Protestant-Catholic government must be formed on July 15. It is to be led by Trimble, who finds himself nudged further and further out on the proverbial limb...
...July 4. After marathon talks failed to yield a breakthrough two days after passing their deadline, British prime minister Tony Blair announced Friday that his government would simply implement the next stage of the peace process without waiting for republicans and loyalists to agree on the handover of IRA weapons. Loyalist politicians had sought to delay the creation of the Northern Ireland Assembly's executive, which would include two seats for the republican Sinn Fein, until the IRA begins decommissioning its weapons. By legislatively enabling the creation of the executive, London is effectively endorsing Sinn Fein's position that...