The Ulster Unionist leader has accused republicans of defaulting on an understanding that the IRA would begin decommissioning by yesterday. Mr Trimble said Senator George Mitchell would support his position. Mr Gerry Adams insisted the record would eventually show there was no agreement about an end-of-January deadline, and that republicans were honouring the Belfast Agreement.
Mr Trimble said he expected the institutions of the agreement - the Executive, the North-South Council and cross-Border implementation bodies, and the British-Irish Council - would shortly be suspended.
"My expectation is that we will be moving fairly soon now to the suspension of the agreement. It is regrettable that it is so, but it is also inevitable, because the basis on which we formed the Executive has now been falsified," he added.
The fault for suspension would lie with the republican movement because it did not reciprocate when the Ulster Unionist Council agreed in November to allow the UUP to participate in the Executive with Sinn Fein.
"We took the risks, we made the effort, they did not," said Mr Trimble. It would be "most unwise" to carry out a short time-limited review without any suspension of the agreement. "It would be entirely counterproductive," he added.
In relation to the conflict over whether Sinn Fein defaulted on the agreement Mr Trimble said: "It was also agreed, and Senator George Mitchell said in his final statement on the review [in November], that the parties had agreed that decommissioning wo uld take place as soon as possible.
"It was made clear to Sinn Fein again and again and again that this experiment, this risk, we were taking was time-limited and would not run beyond the end of January, to give them the opportunity of being able to make a response without it being seen to be subject to any ultimata." He said that in January when the Ulster Unionist Council gave the go-ahead for allowing UUP to join Sinn Fein in government it was necessary for him to issue a post-dated resignation in the absence of disarmament, to keep his party on board the process.
Asked specifically whether Senator Mitchell understood January 31st to be "the outer limit or deadline" for IRA decommissioning, the UUP leader replied "yes." Asked for evidence to sustain this assertion, he said: "There is evidence aplenty, but you will have to take my word for it."
Mr Trimble said the UUP took the risk of entering into government ahead of any IRA decommissioning. The IRA was given more than two months to reciprocate, but it was clear now that the IRA had not made any gesture on weapons.
"It is a matter of very great regret to me that this has turned out this way. I hoped right up to the last minute that republicans would respond because this is the best chance we have had. And I don't see how it is going to be possible for a better chance to come." Mr Trimble said he could not see how he could go back to the Ulster Unionist Council and ask them to continue in government with Sinn Fein. It would certainly not be possible "without a lot more being on the table", he added.
Asked about Senator Mitchell being again asked to carry out a review, Mr Trimble said that because the Senator had dedicated so much time to the process he would be almost embarrassed to urge his re-involvement.
