DATE=11/19/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CLINTON / AHERN / IRELAND (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-256359
BYLINE=DEBORAH TATE
DATELINE=ISTANBUL
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: President Clinton is praising a new proposal
aimed at breaking the deadlock in the Northern Ireland
peace process. He made his comments at a meeting with
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern on the sidelines of
a European security summit in Istanbul. Correspondent
Deborah Tate reports.
Text: As he prepared to meet with Mr. Ahern, Mr.
Clinton welcomed the compromises made by the Irish
Republican Army and the Ulster Unionists, Northern
Ireland's major British Protestant party, that could
clear the way for the full implementation of last
year's Good Friday peace accord. The accord calls for
a power-sharing government and disarmament.
/// CLINTON ACTUALITY ///
I think we are moving in the right direction.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Ahern is just as pleased.
/// Ahern actuality ///
This is an opportunity we thought we would never
get. We have it now, it is for us to make it
work.
/// END ACT ///
The renewed optimism came after the IRA Wednesday
announced it was ready to discuss handing in its large
arsenal of weapons. A representative of the group
would be named to negotiate the terms of the handover
when a power-sharing government is set up. In turn,
the Ulster Unionists have agreed to drop their long-
standing demand for IRA disarmament before the new
government is formed.
Although Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble faces an
uphill battle in winning support for the plan from his
party, Mr. Clinton says he would not have agreed to
it if - as the President put it -- he did not
believe that ultimately all the provisions of the Good
Friday accord would be honored. (Signed)
NEB/DAT/KL
19-Nov-1999 07:46 AM EDT (19-Nov-1999 1246 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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