Clinton Urges IRA to Declare a Truce in Northern Ireland

President Clinton on Tuesday took on the stalled peace process for Northern Ireland, urging the Irish Republican Army to declare a cease-fire that he said would pave the way for Sinn Fein, the IRA’s political wing, to enter the ongoing peace talks.

“We can’t make peace until we end violence,” Clinton told reporters in the Oval Office, where he was joined by Irish Prime Minister John Bruton.

The president added that “substantive and inclusive” negotiations are the only way to resolve Northern Ireland’s chronic troubles.

More so than any previous U.S. president, Clinton has sought to help resolve the protracted Irish conflict. His involvement helped lead to a truce in 1994 by the IRA, which wants to bring Northern Ireland into the predominantly Roman Catholic Irish Republic, that was then followed by a cease-fire by Protestant paramilitary units loyal to Britain.

But the IRA abandoned its 17-month truce in February, just two months after Clinton had become the only U.S. president to visit Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, in a bid to highlight the peace process. The IRA had become disenchanted with the process, doubting the British government’s commitment to achieving an accord.

On Tuesday, Clinton and Bruton urged the IRA to declare a cease-fire anew and dangled the prospect of a seat at the bargaining table as bait.

“I want to reiterate my call for the IRA to institute a cease-fire in words as well as deeds,” the president said. “If they do that, I am convinced that Sinn Fein will be invited to participate in the talks.”

Bruton advised IRA leaders to declare a halt to violence sooner rather than later, noting that British elections next year could cause new opponents of the peace process to emerge.

Britain’s opposition Labor and Liberal Democratic parties said Tuesday that they will end cooperation with the ruling Conservatives in January, increasing the chances that Prime Minister John Major will lose power in elections required to take place by May.

Bruton, meeting for a second day with Clinton, said that a “window of opportunity” exists for the IRA.

“A cease-fire now is the right choice for the republican movement to make,” he said. “The window is never closed, but there are times when it is more open than other times.”

U.S. efforts to settle the Northern Ireland conflict have been spearheaded by George J. Mitchell, a onetime Senate majority leader. Administration officials have said that they hope to have a cease-fire by early 1997. As one step in that direction, Mitchell earlier persuaded British leaders to drop their demand that the IRA disarm unilaterally before negotiations can begin.

Still, hopes for a new truce were set back recently when Major rejected a set of proposals from moderate Irish Catholic leader John Hume that were intended to speed up Sinn Fein’s participation in the negotiations. Also, Bruton and Major failed in a meeting earlier this month to agree on how quickly the talks could be expanded.

One of Major’s demands has been that his intelligence agencies must determine the sincerity of any IRA claims of a cease-fire.

Times staff writer Tyler Marshall contributed to this story.