Trimble threatens to quit

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, MAY 8. The Northern Ireland peace process was thrown into a crisis today as the Ulster Unionist chief, Mr. David Trimble, threatened to resign as First Minister of the province and take his party out of the power-sharing executive if the IRA does not start decommissioning as part of the Good Friday Agreement. He was reported to have given his resignation to the Northern Ireland Assembly, saying it should be effective from the date set out in the Good Friday Agreement for arms decommissioning. The IRA has until July to meet the deadline, but its political arm, the Sinn Fein, insists that there is no rigid time-frame and that progress on arms decommissioning is linked to other issues on which the British Government has not delivered.

Mr. Trimble's dramatic decision came as he faces his party's executive where he is under pressure from hardliners to either get the IRA to start laying down its arms or walk out of the power-sharing arrangement with Sinn Fein. He attacked the Republicans for not honouring the Good Friday Agreement, and insisted that without progress on decommissioning, it would not be possible for his party to continue to share power with them.

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Section  : International
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