Unionists have already made it clear that simple re-engagement with Gen John de Chastelain's decommissioning body is not enough to bring Mr Trimble back into the Northern Ireland Assembly.
But it is now expected the IRA will quickly follow up their offer with actual surrender or "verifiable" destruction of arms.
The same pressure that has led to the IRA's return to decommissioning may also be leading the "Real IRA" to consider calling its own ceasefire.
The IRA statement last night resulted from meetings that have been taking place since last week.
These meetings were prompted by clear messages from the US administration's special representative, Mr Richard Haass, in the aftermath of the Islamic suicide bombings in the US.
The US administration generally has made it clear it will no longer countenance any form of international terrorism and will regard any group involved in exchange of terrorist information or technology as its enemy.
He said earlier this week that the US regarded the IRA's involvement with Marxist narcoterrorists in Colombia as a most serious issue and that this could be taken as a "rubric" statement on the matter.
In light of such an ultimatum, the IRA has quickly moved to state it has fully re-engaged with the Independent International Decommissioning Commission (IIDC). In fact, the IRA had not broken off contact with the commission despite its statement of last month that it had done so.
Only last month, just before the discovery of IRA involvement with the FARC group in Colombia, senior security sources in the Republic said there was no indication whatsoever that the IRA would decommission and that it did not intend to do so.
That situation has changed since the suicide bomb attacks in New York and Washington. Faced with the wrath of Washington, the IRA has quickly indicated its intention to decommission.
It is also expected that the dissident republican group, the "Real IRA", will move towards a ceasefire quite quickly rather than face the consequences of being branded a terrorist group with international links.
The "Real IRA" has links to eastern European organised criminals and at least one of its senior figures may also have links to Arab terrorist groups.
The attacks in the US have created sufficient impetus in Irish politics to force terrorist groups into actions they were not even considering a few weeks ago.
Patrick Smyth, Washington Correspondent, adds:
Asked yesterday about whether the US administration made a distinction between the IRA and the "Real IRA" the President's spokesman, Mr Ari Fleischer, said: "Well certainly the `Real IRA' is listed on the official list of terrorist groups. But the President said what he said for a reason.
"He is sending a message that he is rallying a coalition - those who engage in terrorism and those who harbour terrorists need to be worried about the actions that our government will take."