David Trimble has met with the officer board of the Ulster Unionist Party at their Glengall Street head quarters today and afterwards a spokesman said that the party was still considering the proposals put forward by the two governments. He added that they were also outraged by the deficiencies in the fail safe mechanism, the process where by Sinn Féin would be excluded from the executive if they failed to decommission. The spokesperson said that they were still unhappy about the commitment from the republican movement to actually decommission weapons.
The Unionist officer board of the party took no decision on whether or not to call a full meeting of the 800 strong party council to take a final on the document. It now appears that David Trimble and his colleagues will canvass the views of the rank and file members in the coming days before taking a decision on their next move.
Today's meeting is the start of a series of discussions within the Northern parties of the plan set out last night by the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister. The plan calls for devolution to take effect from July 18, with the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons to begin shortly afterwards.
The plan has already been rejected by the hard-line MP, Jeffrey Donaldson, who described the plan as “fundamentally flawed”. He predicted that the party would turn down the proposals because Sinn Féin had not given enough assurances about their commitment to peace.
In an article to be published in tomorrow's Sunday Mirror, the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, hails the plan outlined at Stormont yesterday as marking great breakthroughs. He says that the path is now mapped out and it just needs that final act of courage and vision from the political leaders - and the people of Northern Ireland – to enable the journey towards a lasting peace to be completed. Mr Blair describes the five days of negotiations as the most difficult in which he was ever involved.
The proposals arising from those negotiations were presented on the steps of Castle Buildings at Stormont shortly before eight o'clock last night. Tony Blair said that they offered, at last, after decades of violence and conflict and injustice, the chance for peace and for democracy and equality for all. Mr Blair paid tribute to the contribution made by Bertie Ahern to the negotiations. Presenting the proposals, the Taoiseach said: "The Rubicon has been crossed." He said that the people of Northern Ireland could face the future with a sense of security.
Commenting on the proposals last night, Mr Trimble said that Sinn Féin had not yet offered commitments that would be recognised by Unionists. He said that their position paper is still aspirational. The Sinn Féin President, Gerry Adams, said that there would be an enormous sigh of relief, not just in Ireland, but throughout the world. He said that he hoped the depth of distrust between the communities would now begin to be bridged. He added that all sides had a mighty job to do. President Clinton welcomed the Governments' proposals and appealed to the North's political leadership not to let this fall apart. He said that there were clear guarantees to back up the promises made.
