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| Britain |
| Northern Ireland Deal Advances |
| 2006-11-11 |
| Britain and Ireland on Friday seized on guarded words of support from Northern Ireland’s feuding Protestant and Roman Catholic political parties, saying that enough progress had been made by the first deadline they had set in a timetable for restoring local rule for the province that they could proceed to try to meet the next one. But a dispute about policing is casting doubt on whether the Democratic Unionist Party, led by the Rev. Ian Paisley, the veteran Protestant leader, and the main Roman Catholic party, Sinn Fein, can reach agreement by Nov. 24, when they are to nominate leaders for the power-sharing government. A government executive branch that included Northern Ireland unionist leaders and Sinn Fein collapsed in 2002. The unionists seek to maintain the political tie with Britain; Sinn Fein is considered the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, which has sought to separate the province from Britain. In a joint statement, the British and Irish governments said that they were satisfied that party statements had indicated support for a government. Last month in St. Andrews, Scotland, the governments proposed a sequence of deadlines, starting Friday, for the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein to agree to share power in an executive apparatus that would take over most governmental powers starting next March. As for the critical issue of policing, they proposed that London would cede full powers to the local executive branch in 2008. In their joint statement on Friday, the British and Irish governments said that the St. Andrews Agreement remained the basis of reaching their goal, and that preparatory legislation would be worked on before Nov. 24. The foundations of an agreement, the governments said, are “support for power-sharing and the political institutions and support for policing and the rule of law.” |
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