THE possibility of a renewed IRA ceasefire receded last night after a statement from the organisation rejected arms decommissioning and said a ceasefire was "remote in the extreme".
In the statement, issued to news organisations in Belfast, the IRA called for immediate and substantive negotiations "without any preconditions" and blamed the British government for placing "obstacles" in the way of progress.
Last night's statement appears to confirm reports from security and republican sources in recent weeks that the possibility of a renewed IRA ceasefire has disappeared, and that decommissioning is not at all likely.
It will also, inevitably, increase fears among the security forces of renewed IRA attacks.
There have been reports of increased IRA activity in the Republic in the past month, raising fears that the organisation may be planning a bomb attack in Britain, or some other offensive action.
Since ending its ceasefire on February 8th, the IRA has carried out six bomb attacks in London, killing two civilians and one. of its' own members and injuring around 100 people.
The first bomb at Canard Wharf caused many millions of pounds worth of damage to property. The last bomb on Hammersmith Bridge last month failed to explode.
There have been no attacks within Northern Ireland, how ever, giving rise to the belief that the organisation does not wish to prompt a loyalist backlash against nationalists in the North.
Garda sources have also indicated that there appears to be little chance of a change of heart within the hard line leadership of the IRA. Most leading members of the organisation in the Republic are thought to oppose a return to a ceasefire. This view is said to be strongly held in Border areas as well as by the more hardline, elements of the organisation in Belfast.
In its statement last night, the IRA said it did not see that any forthcoming meetings at prime ministerial level between Britain and the Republic would "clear the British obstacles which frustrated progress throughout 18 months [the period of the cease fire from September 1994 to February this year]".
The statement went on to say that the likelihood of another IRA ceasefire was "remote in the extreme". It called for "immediate entry, without any preconditions whatsoever, into substantive negotiations involving all parties and with all matters on the table".
"Let us nail completely the position on decommissioning. The IRA will not be decommissioning its weapons through either the front or the back door. We will never leave nationalist areas defenceless this side of a final settlement."
This is the second IRA statement indicating that decommissioning is not a possibility in the absence of a "final" negotiated settlement.
On September 29th last year the IRA issued a statement accusing the British government of creating "new and unreasonable demands" for the handing over of weapons.
That statement said there was "no possibility of disarmament except as part of a negotiated settlement".