Britain rejected a key part of an Irish Republican Army peace overture as too vague Wednesday and demanded that the outlawed group renounce violence in undisputable terms. Britain and Ireland are pressing the IRA and its allied Sinn Fein party to make new peace commitments in simple language. IRA statements traditionally are open to rival interpretations. “Clarity is our friend in this process now. Ambiguity is our enemy,” British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in London. Both Blair and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern say that the IRA must stop all hostile activities and get rid of stockpiled weapons. For its part, Sinn Fein must accept the legitimacy of the provincial police force. Otherwise, they say, it will be impossible to revive the Catholic-Protestant administration at the heart of the 1998 peace accord. Blair, in a potentially inflammatory move, revealed a key phrase from the IRA proposal, which Sinn Fein and the IRA had wanted kept secret until the two governments made their own plans public. But the two governments are withholding their plans until an agreement is reached with the IRA. Full Story
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