Mr David Trimble said last night that the position of his Ulster Unionist Party "became impossible" when the IRA failed to move on decommissioning. He said he was "sad" that the institutions were being suspended, but such action became inevitable.
Mr Trimble, speaking after the Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, had announced the suspension of the Assembly and the Executive, said there was no significant progress from the IRA to resolve the arms deadlock.
He said he met Mr Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein yesterday afternoon, and later spoke by telephone to Mr Gerry Adams but there were no grounds to suggest a breakthrough.
"No information was available to me, and they had nothing for me, and consequently suspension became inevitable," Mr Trimble told reporters.
He said Mr Adams did not tell him the details of the republican proposals to break the deadlock. He had no information to suggest there was any substance to them.
"Mr Adams has a position. Let him put it to me. We will go into review. We can examine it there, but of course what should have happened is that the IRA should have done what they said they would do in November and enter into serious discussions with de Chastelain and agree the modalities and agree the timetabling [with regard to decommissioning]."
The process would now move to review, he said, although he did not know how it would proceed or how long it would take. The UUP entered into the process to allow paramilitaries to turn their backs on violence, but that had not happened.
"We gave them the opportunity to leave aside the Armalite and rely solely on the ballot box and when we come back from suspension we must come back to a state of affairs where people rely simply, purely, on the ballot box and that arms are no longer an issue at all," he added.
Mr Trimble pledged that his party would work strenuously to make the review work.
He believed that the IRA would eventually decommission "because they have to". It must happen by May 22nd, the date for decommissioning suggested in the Belfast Agreement. "If it does not start very soon, then there will be great difficulty with the May 22nd deadline."
Mr Trimble said the IRA was going against the overwhelming public desire for IRA decommissioning, which was coming as much from nationalism as from unionism, and internationally as well.
Everybody was calling on the IRA to get rid of its weapons, he said, "and I think that the frenetic activity of the past few days is a sign that the penny is beginning to drop".
He noted that the IRA had stated it posed no threat and he hoped that the organisation was "telling the truth" on this matter.
"What we have is the disappointment that the courage and risk-taking of the Ulster Unionist Party was not reciprocated by Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness. We jumped and they unfortunately did not."
