No IRA Arms for Talks, Sinn Fein Says
A top Irish republican said bluntly on Sunday that there was not the remotest possibility that the IRA would surrender its arms to secure Sinn Fein, its political wing, a seat at Northern Ireland peace talks.
The British government has been insisting that the Irish Republican Army hand over its arms before all-party talks can start to hammer out a future for a province scarred by a quarter-century of conflict.
“There is no possibility whatsoever . . . that the IRA will surrender its weapons this side of a negotiated settlement,” Martin McGuinness, a leading Sinn Fein strategist, told BBC television.
Northern Ireland Secretary Patrick Mayhew held high-level talks with Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams in Belfast on Thursday. The government said the talks were “constructive,” but Adams said they failed to break the arms impasse.
The IRA declared a historic cease-fire in September, and its Protestant pro-British foes responded with their own truce.
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