Political progress in Northern Ireland is moving towards achieving an unbreakable peace, and if the Belfast Agreement is implemented in full "everything can and will follow", the Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, told the Ireland Fund of Great Britain yesterday.
The British government was not softening its position on decommissioning, contrary to some reports in the media, Mr Mandelson said. "Short of going round and collecting in every single gun myself I don't know how I could have been clearer. Violence must be a thing of the past . . . The knowledge that the IRA itself was fully committed to the search for peace and will play its part would show the Good Friday agreement is indeed for real and going places."
As Senator George Mitchell prepares to complete his review of the Belfast Agreement, Mr Mandelson said he believed political progress could be replicated on a bigger stage, ensuring the establishment of the Northern Ireland executive.
"The peace process is indeed at a very crucial stage. I believe now that we have it in our grasp to map out the series of steps and changes capable of achieving an unbreakable peace," he told 400 guests at the fund's annual lunch at the Banqueting House in London.
Mr Mandelson said he had been encouraged by the political progress of recent weeks which "the politicians haven't shouted about and haven't grandstanded to the media about".
"And yet the simple fact is startling: in the last few weeks locked up in Castle Buildings in Stormont, nationalists, republicans and unionists have been talking to each other about the future of Northern Ireland, face to face, in an atmosphere of give and take, of trust and co-operation. It's been a privilege to see."
Mr Mandelson was the main speaker at the event.