Sinn Fein warns of crisis over unionist demands

The North faces a "huge crisis" if unionists persist in demanding sanctions against republicans, Sinn Féin said today.

The North faces a "huge crisis" if unionists persist in demanding sanctions against republicans, Sinn Féin said today.

Sinn Féin’s Mr Martin McGuinness attacked a threat by Ulster Unionist Mr David Trimble to use the "nuclear option" to pull down the power-sharing Assembly if Northern Secretary of State Dr John Reid fails to act.

"I think there's every danger of us reaching a huge crisis within this process when I hear for example Mr David Trimble this morning talking about the nuclear option.

"We know what happened at Hiroshima, we know what happened at Nagasaki. Why are we talking about making the North of Ireland effectively a political wasteland?" he said.

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The Sinn Fein Minister was speaking ahead of a debate in Northern Assembly members on the state of the IRA ceasefire in the wake of allegations that the republican terror group is still targeting senior politicians.

A motion tabled by Mr Trimble has called on Dr Reid to make an assessment of the IRA's ceasefire amid allegations the group is targeting leading Conservatives and was behind the March 17th break-in at the top security Castlereagh Police Station.

Mr McGuinness blamed faceless "securocrats" in the British establishment for briefing against republicans in a bid to wreck the process.

"In the course of the last five years, the IRA hasn't even fired a shot at a member of the RUC. They haven't even fired a shot at any member of the British Army. . . . That's the commitment that has come from the IRA," he said.

PA