‘U.S. Help Vital,’ IRA Ally Says in N.Y. : Ulster: Gerry Adams urges the Administration to focus on N. Ireland as it did on Mideast. Clinton declines to be drawn in.

Declaring that “U.S. help is vital,” the leader of the political wing of the Irish Republican Army called on the Clinton Administration on Tuesday to help break the deadlock in negotiating a settlement of the conflict in Northern Ireland.

“There is an urgent need to break the current deadlock and to move the situation forward towards a negotiated settlement and a lasting peace,” Gerry Adams told a conference in Manhattan examining the chances for peace in strife-torn Ulster. “The U.S. government can assist at a wider level by actively seeking to encourage dialogue and agreement.”

Adams, head of the Sinn Fein party, proposed that the Administration turn its attention to Northern Ireland, just as it worked to facilitate peace in the Middle East.

He accused British Prime Minister John Major’s government of “bad faith and double-dealing” by declining to clarify its position, put forth in a joint Irish-British peace plan announced in December.

In Washington, President Clinton, who approved giving Adams a 48-hour visa to attend the conference in the hopes of hastening the peace process, declined immediately to be drawn into the complex dispute. “The people who have to resolve this are the Irish and the British,” the President said. “I think he (Adams) should also support the work being done by the prime ministers of both Ireland and Britain in pursuing the peace.”

British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd, also in Washington, attacked Adams as a “master of ambiguity” who has never renounced violence in Northern Ireland. “He has the influence to end the violence by the IRA,” Hurd told a news conference.

The decision by the Administration to grant Adams a visa after he was turned down eight times clearly upset senior British officials, although they reacted mildly in public. “The principles involved are pretty clear,” Hurd said. “It is a contrast between terrorism and democracy. And I think I know which side of that argument the United States is basically on.”

Adams, a 45-year-old former member of the British Parliament, is barred from speaking on radio and television in Britain because of his role with the IRA. His day in New York was one of maximum American media exposure, though minimal, if any, progress on the peace front.

He appeared widely on television, stressing that the ball “is very firmly in the British court.”

Adams, whose father was an IRA member who was shot by police in 1939 and imprisoned twice for his activities, emphasized that he wanted Ireland and Britain to agree on the principle of self-determination for all of Ireland in a time frame to be negotiated.

He said that December’s framework for peace announced by Britain and Ireland was only an initial step. He wanted further clarifications, adding, “the issue of self-determination is central to the resolution of the conflict.”

The plan offers Sinn Fein equal treatment with other political parties in Northern Ireland, provided it renounces violence and the IRA lays down its weapons--a point Hurd once again stressed on Tuesday.

“This can’t be fudged,” the foreign secretary said. “If there is going to be peace, and if Sinn Fein is going to take its part among the constitutional parties discussing the future of Northern Ireland, there has to be a permanent end to the shooting and the bombing. They have to accept the ballot rather than the bullet.”

Pressed repeatedly by reporters, Adams said he would not urge the IRA at this time to lay down its arms. “I lean on no one,” he said.

But at the same time, he said Sinn Fein was committed to a peace settlement and was “anxious” to be persuaded that the Downing Street Declaration signed by Major and Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds could provide the basis for peace.

Adams added that, even if this were not the case, “we should all move to bridge the gap.”

The National Committee on Foreign Policy, a private group, had hoped major participants in the Northern Ireland struggle would attend its New York forum and that progress might result. Some 40 members of Congress, spearheaded by Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.), had urged the Administration to grant Adams a visa.

But the conference was not inclusive: Two prominent politicians--the Rev. Ian Paisley, the extremist Protestant leader, and Ulster Unionist Party head James Molyneaux--declined, declaring they would not associate with “apologists for terrorism.”