November 13, 1999
Web posted at: 6:00 p.m. EST (2300 GMT)

In this story: 'What's at stake here is too serious' Proposal kept secret Unionists voice divisions The 'last final session' RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (CNN) -- The future of peace in Northern Ireland hangs in the balance this weekend after U.S. negotiator George Mitchell ordered Protestant and Catholic leaders to reconsider their positions on the stalemated peace process.

Mitchell's latest attempt to break the impasse between the sides has gone on for ten weeks. The former U.S. senator ordered both sides to take until Monday to think about the situation before he gives up his bid to revive negotiations.

After several days when his mission seemed to be on the brink of a workable agreement, the entire process hit a major snag late this week. The Ulster Unionists, who met in private on Thursday night, are seemingly unwilling or unable to support the latest proposal to re-start the peace process.

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble now has until Monday to obtain backing from his party for a package that lacks his Protestant supporters' long-held demand -- a guarantee that the outlawed Irish Republican Army will disarm.

Peter Mandelson, Britain's Northern Ireland secretary, conceded that efforts to salvage the Good Friday peace accord of 1998 were now "on a knife-edge." He supported Mitchell's decision to reconvene negotiations Monday.

'What's at stake here is too serious'

"I don't want to rush people," said Mandelson, who will have to take charge if Mitchell ends his mission. "What's at stake here is too serious, too big, with too much riding on what we agreed."

Mitchell said his efforts had gone on "much longer than originally intended," but they were necessary "given the gravity of what is at stake." He asked "all concerned for their patience and understanding."

For the past year, the Ulster Unionists have refused to back the formation of a new Protestant-Catholic administration for Northern Ireland, arguing that the IRA must first accept its obligation to disarm under terms of the accord. The IRA- linked Sinn Fein party is entitled to two of 12 Cabinet posts.

Proposal kept secret

Although the current proposal is being kept secret, negotiators said it included a proposed IRA policy statement, the first from the group since its declaration last Easter vowing never to disarm. Some Republicans always have viewed disarmament as tantamount to surrender.

This new statement would affirm the IRA's support for its 1997 cease-fire, and, in a new commitment that Sinn Fein considers a painful concession, pledge to appoint a representative to a Canadian-led disarmament commission. The Good Friday accord empowered that panel to oversee the gradual destruction of IRA weapons dumps by May 2000.

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams refused to discuss details of the IRA's offer, but he insisted his side had made "strenuous efforts, taken initiatives and stretched ourselves and our constituency to the limit."

Adams also chided Trimble's leadership, wondering whether the Ulster Unionists "want this process to succeed."

Adams said the pause was "another opportunity for Unionists to consider where they want to go from here."

Unionists voice divisions

Mandelson: "What's at stake here is too serious, too big, with too much riding on what we agreed"

The Ulster Unionists, meanwhile, voiced their internal divisions publicly as Friday's talks ended.

Deputy leader John Taylor confirmed he had voted against the current proposals in a confidential Ulster Unionist vote Thursday night. He said there was "nothing new" in the IRA statement.

"Until there's something new, obviously one doesn't change one's mind," he said.

The senior Ulster Unionist negotiator, Reg Empey, denied reports that the vote had gone narrowly against Trimble. He said the party remained determined "to do our best to try to make the review a success."

The 'last final session'

Northern Ireland's major Catholic-supported party, the Social Democratic and Labor Party, praised Mitchell for narrowing the ground between the Ulster Unionists and Sinn Fein.

Seamus Mallon, deputy leader of the moderate nationalist party, said "the credibility of the entire political process" was suffering because of the delays in implementation.

He warned that Monday could be the "last final session," and predicted that no future mediator would "get closer to bridging that gap than Senator Mitchell has got."

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said a Northern Ireland peace accord was "within our grasp" and urged parties not to give up.

"We have never come this far before. We've never been this close to a lasting settlement in Northern Ireland," Blair told Britain's Sky television from the Commonwealth leaders' summit in Durban, South Africa.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said on Friday he would not ask Mitchell to extend his role as mediator, but he remained committed to implementing the agreement.

At a speech before the nonpartisan National Committee on American Foreign Policy, Ahern noted that the purpose of the current review of the accord "was not to go back and try to rewrite the Good Friday agreement."

The review is intended to remove obstacles to implementing the historic accord, which seeks to end sectarian violence that has claimed more than 3,500 lives, Ahern said.

London Bureau Chief Tom Mintier, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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