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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

North Irish Leaders Report Progress

Compiled From Wire Services

Protestant and Catholic leaders accepted a compromise Tuesday designed to overcome a towering obstacle in Northern Ireland’s peace talks the schedule for disarming rival paramilitary groups.

Since negotiations among nine political parties began in June 1996, pro-British Protestants have vowed to move forward only if the Irish Republican Army agrees in advance to disarm.

For their part, the IRA and its allied Sinn Fein party say they’ll call a new cease-fire only if the British government puts aside that Protestant demand. Without the cease-fire, Sinn Fein is not allowed to join the talks.

But on Tuesday, the leader of the main Protestant party, David Trimble, said he’d accept an Anglo-Irish recommendation to break the deadlock. It would empower an international commission to oversee the gradual disarmament of the IRA and pro-British paramilitary gangs as wider negotiations progress.

Sinn Fein reacted coolly to the move, while the the pro-British paramilitary groups said it was about time such an agreement was reached.