Sinn Fein Rejects Plan for Weapons

Resisting pressure from other parties, Sinn Fein negotiators formally rejected a compromise plan Tuesday that would allow Northern Ireland’s long-delayed government to be formed in exchange for an IRA concession on arms.

The Irish Republican Army-linked party made the announcement after all eight parties that backed last year’s Good Friday peace accord gathered to discuss the plan proposed by the British and Irish prime ministers.

After negotiating for two hours, Sinn Fein chairman Mitchel McLaughlin accused Britain’s Tony Blair and Ireland’s Bertie Ahern of trying to rewrite the accord to satisfy the Ulster Unionists, Northern Ireland’s major British Protestant party.

Ahern and Blair have recommended a middle path between the IRA’s blanket refusal to disarm and the Ulster Unionists’ insistence that the process must start before they will share power with Sinn Fein.