A group linked to the Ulster Defence Association warned DUP leader Ian Paisley yesterday that if he destroyed the Belfast Agreement they would not come to his aid.
"If there is blood to be spilled let Dr Paisley spill his own blood because it will not be our bodies he will be fighting over," said David Nicholl, a spokesman for the Ulster Political Research Group, which is linked to the UDA.
He was responding to a speech made by Mr Paisley the day before in which he said that powersharing with Sinn Féin would be "over our dead bodies". Mr Nicholl was speaking in Dublin after talks between a delegation from his organisation and the Taoiseach.
He described Dr Paisley's speech rejecting powersharing on July 12th as "much ado about nothing" saying loyalists had been listening to this kind of rhetoric for the past 35 years. "We have been marched up the hill and down the hill many times over that period," he said.
Mr Nicholl said his group had received assurances from the Taoiseach that there would be no imposition of "an Anglo-Irish agreement mark two" if the November 24th deadline for the establishment of a powersharing executive in the North was not met. He said they had been pleased to hear the Taoiseach stress that "plan A" still stood and that he was completely focused on getting the Good Friday agreement implemented in full.
Mr Nicholl said that, like the Taoiseach, his organisation was fully committed to the agreement because it had been voted on by the people of the island.
He said there was no democratic mandate for joint authority if powersharing could not be achieved. They were satisfied that the Taoiseach accepted that the constitutional position would remain unchanged because it had been endorsed by the people.
Mr Nicholl also said there was an onus on republicans to sign up to policing and to convince people that they had put an end to criminality.
Mr Ahern later described the meeting as "positive and focused". The group briefed him on their conflict transformation initiative and he said he welcomed ongoing efforts to bring about genuine transformation in loyalism.
Mr Ahern said the goal was the restoration of the Assembly and Executive by November 24th and that this was achievable, if the will was there to do so.