The White House has welcomed the news of IRA decommissioning but warns that the republican movement has to show that it has abandoned all paramilitary and criminal activities.Denis Staunton, Washington Correspondent
White House spokesman Scott McLellan said yesterday's statement marked an opportunity for all parties to renew efforts to reach a sustainable political settlement in Northern Ireland.
"The decommissioning by the IRA is a critical first step in fulfilling the terms of their July 28th statement to pursue its goals through exclusively peaceful and democratic means."
He added: "And it must be followed by actions demonstrating the republican movement's unequivocal commitment to the rule of law and to the renunciation of all paramilitary and criminal activities.
"We remain steadfast in our support for the peace process and the work of the British and Irish governments to achieve lasting peace and reconciliation for the people of Northern Ireland under the principles of the Good Friday agreement."
US politicians who have been engaged with the peace process welcomed the IRA's move as an event of historical significance.
Senator Edward Kennedy said the long-awaited action by the IRA was welcomed by all Americans who cared deeply about peace and an end to the violence in Northern Ireland.
"I congratulate Gerry Adams and Sinn Féin for their role in this achievement.
"Hopefully, this dramatic and historic step toward peace will be embraced by the unionist community and become a new dawn for the peace process, so that the all-important restoration of the Northern Ireland Assembly can take place as soon as possible," he said.
New York congressman Jim Walsh, chairman of the US Congress's Friends of Ireland Committee, said he hoped that unionists would match the IRA's action by restoring the North's political institutions.
"Today's news is a historic advancement in the decades-old struggle to end religious and sectarian violence in Northern Ireland," he said. "Through disarmament, the IRA clearly indicates its intent to advance a political resolution to the Troubles."
Massachusetts congressman Richard Neal described the IRA's action as "an extraordinary development" that should be welcomed by the US, British and Irish governments in the strongest possible terms.
"By putting its arms beyond use, the IRA has ended its armed struggle. In the process, an unparalleled opportunity for peace and political stability has been created," he said.
Mr Neal, who will meet Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness in Washington this week, said that if the DUP failed to respond to the IRA's move, the institutions envisaged in the Belfast Agreement should be made to work without the biggest unionist party.
"Paisley's leadership role is going to be questioned here," he said.