Adams blames political deadlock on DUP

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams has blamed the current political impasse on the DUP during a meeting with the US Special envoy Mitchell Reiss in Washington today.

Wednesday's talks, which also involved leading Irish-American politician Ted Kennedy, came at the end of Mr Adams' week-long visit to the United States.

Making clear his view that the largest obstacle to progress “was the demands of the DUP to fundamentally change the Good Friday Agreement and their refusal to share power with nationalists”, Mr Adams said: "The impasse at this time in the talks process is the DUP failure to accept the fundamentals of the Good Friday Agreement and their failure to accept nationalists and republicans on the basis of equality. In particular they have targeted the powersharing and all-Ireland principles of the Agreement.

"The core issues were negotiated and agreed in the Good Friday Agreement. There will be no going back on these positions. That is the new political reality which the DUP has to come to terms with.

“The pro-Agreement majority cannot be expected to stand still while the DUP edge their way into the 21st century. The DUP's refusal to engage and to accept the reality of the Good Friday Agreement cannot be allowed to paralyse the process of change."

Today’s comments follow remarks made by Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern who described reports of possible IRA decommissioning by the end of the year as "very near the mark".

Mr Ahern was speaking on Monday as he called on local parties to consider whether it was a sound tactical move to leave the current political process on the back-burner until 2006 if the current window of opportunity was lost following recent discussions.

(MB/SP)