British, Irish leaders to discuss Northern Ireland

A bitter dispute between Northern Ireland's power-sharing parties has threatened to disrupt the fragile peace agreement there.

Izvor: Deutsche Welle

Monday, 25.01.2010.

13:38

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A bitter dispute between Northern Ireland's power-sharing parties has threatened to disrupt the fragile peace agreement there. Northern Irish leaders resume talks Monday on transferring policing and justice powers. British, Irish leaders to discuss Northern Ireland A weakening political union in Northern Ireland has prompted meetings between both Irish and British politicians desperate to maintain the delicate power-sharing agreement. Martin McGuinness, Northern Ireland's deputy first minister and leader of the Sinn Fein party, is set to hold talks with temporarily removed First Minister Peter Robinson on Monday to calm a bitter feud over the region's autonomy. Robinson agreed to step down as First Minister for six weeks earlier this month amid a scandal over his wife's affair with a 19-year-old man. He is still leading the negotiations despite the scandal. The issue at stake is the control of Northern Ireland's policing and justice powers. Sinn Fein, a Catholic party that supports an eventual united Ireland, wants to transfer control from London to Belfast as soon as possible. Negotiations on the power transfer broke down last week when Sinn Fein leaders walked out on the talks, accusing Robinson's Democratic Unionist Party of stalling. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is also set to meet with Irish counterpart Brian Cowen in London on Monday to discuss the crisis. On Sunday, Cowen described the situation as "serious." Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said over the weekend the talks would be a "critical and defining engagement." "If that (the transfer of justice powers) is not possible, then no self respecting public representative or political party would want to be part of what would be nothing less than a charade," Adams told reporters Saturday after a party executive meeting in Dublin. Ireland's 1998 Good Friday Agreement brought peace to Northern Ireland after three decades of sectarian violence killed 3,600 people there.

British, Irish leaders to discuss Northern Ireland

A weakening political union in Northern Ireland has prompted meetings between both Irish and British politicians desperate to maintain the delicate power-sharing agreement.

Martin McGuinness, Northern Ireland's deputy first minister and leader of the Sinn Fein party, is set to hold talks with temporarily removed First Minister Peter Robinson on Monday to calm a bitter feud over the region's autonomy.

Robinson agreed to step down as First Minister for six weeks earlier this month amid a scandal over his wife's affair with a 19-year-old man. He is still leading the negotiations despite the scandal.

The issue at stake is the control of Northern Ireland's policing and justice powers. Sinn Fein, a Catholic party that supports an eventual united Ireland, wants to transfer control from London to Belfast as soon as possible.

Negotiations on the power transfer broke down last week when Sinn Fein leaders walked out on the talks, accusing Robinson's Democratic Unionist Party of stalling.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is also set to meet with Irish counterpart Brian Cowen in London on Monday to discuss the crisis. On Sunday, Cowen described the situation as "serious."

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said over the weekend the talks would be a "critical and defining engagement."

"If that (the transfer of justice powers) is not possible, then no self respecting public representative or political party would want to be part of what would be nothing less than a charade," Adams told reporters Saturday after a party executive meeting in Dublin.

Ireland's 1998 Good Friday Agreement brought peace to Northern Ireland after three decades of sectarian violence killed 3,600 people there.

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