Sinn Féin and the SDLP have differed sharply in their responses to the British Prime Minister's demands for clarification from the IRA.
Speaking at Sinn Féin headquarters on the Falls Road in Belfast yesterday, Mr Gerry Kelly insisted the IRA statements to the British and Irish Governments were "clear and unambiguous". He was speaking after a series of Easter commemoration speeches by the Sinn Féin leadership, all of which insisted that the IRA's intentions could not be misunderstood.
Mr Kelly complained also that the governments' focus was on the IRA and its intentions whereas there was no attention shown to the loyalist paramilitaries which, he claimed, were still engaged in attacks against Catholics.
"There is no clarity from the two governments," he said. "They have made conditional the joint declaration. They should publish it. What is not clear and unambiguous is what the UUP is saying.
They have a very ambiguous position on the state of the institutions. What the British government have done is introduce sanctions which are outside the Good Friday agreement.
"The IRA are the one group which have been clear and unambiguous."
He said Mr Blair could not demand of any group that it uses words "as Gerry Adams put it, that are made on a securocrat's laptop". He insisted it was unreasonable for demands to be made on the IRA to use "British terms".
Asked if the IRA would respond to the Prime Minister's three specific questions which he posed during his Downing Street statement yesterday and if the IRA statement would be published, Mr Kelly said he did not know as he did not speak for the IRA.
He repeated his belief that the current negotiations were about a package which included joint commitments by the two governments, pledges by the Ulster Unionists and a clear statement from the IRA about its intentions. The IRA had delivered.
The SDLP said the two governments were right to demand clarity from the IRA. The party leader, Mr Mark Durkan, has demanded that the governments' proposals and the IRA statements be published.
Yesterday he agreed that time was running out and that there was little room for progress before the Assembly is formally dissolved in advance of elections on May 29th. "Elections can go ahead and should go ahead," Mr Durkan said.
"In this context, the two governments are right to seek clarity from the IRA about such basic commitments," he said. "The credibility of the process can afford no more ambiguity on such fundamental issues."
He admitted that "constructive ambiguity" had played a role in the past, but now was a time for clarity.
"The Irish people want to have the clarity that the governments are seeking and they want to have the certainty of the agreement's implementation that the Joint Declaration can offer," he said.