Clinton: Get Snakes Out, Find Peace Key Figures In N. Ireland Talks Get Earful On ‘Chance Of A Lifetime’

All the parties to the Northern Ireland peace negotiations paraded through the Oval Office on Tuesday to hear President Clinton admonish them not to squander “the chance of a lifetime for peace.”

Clinton, wearing an acid green tie and green cuff links sent to him by Irish relatives, cleared his schedule to meet Irish and Northern Ireland political leaders in what he called a “30-hour marathon effort.”

The goal of the meetings, from Monday evening through Tuesday night, Clinton said, is “to close as many gaps as I can in the Irish peace process,” with the hope that the next weeks of negotiations under British and Irish auspices can negotiate a political framework by Easter.

If so, Clinton may visit Ireland and Northern Ireland in May to campaign for a “yes” vote before a referendum, in both parts of Ireland, that could take place as early as May 22. That could lead to elections for a new Northern Ireland Assembly by the end of June.

“This is the chance of a lifetime for peace in Ireland,” Clinton said after meeting with Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern. “You must get it done. It is too late for those who have already been killed by the sectarian violence of the last three decades, but you can do it and you must - now,” he said, adding that his message was the same to all the parties.

The British secretary of state for Northern Ireland, Mo Mowlam, echoed British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who called an agreement on a framework “agonizingly close.” While she said she remains optimistic that one can be reached, in the end it is up to the parties, she said. “Confidence is crucial to any negotiated accommodation,” she told reporters Tuesday morning. “And confidence is something Northern Ireland lacks and lacks still.”

A senior U.S. official said the parties are going through political calculations for the negotiations “to figure out where the others are and what their strategies are.” Clinton is pressing the parties “to play it out so everyone wins, and not as a zero-sum,” the official said. In a way, he said, the substance of the issues is less important now than the politics.