U.S. Pols Want Fresh Progress.

By Sean O’Driscoll.

NEW York Congress- man Peter King, has called on the British and Irish governments to take over the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement if the Northern Ireland parties cannot agree to do so. 

King, a Republican from Long Island, said that an international agreement could not be held back by a “dinosaur” like Ian Paisley of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), and said the wording of the Agreement allowed for the two governments to take over if a deal cannot be reached. 

He described the election result as a “great vote of confidence” for Sinn Fein and showed that David Trimble’s policy of “apologizing” for the Good Friday Agreement had not worked. 

“All he had been doing for the past five years is trying to appease Ian Paisley and it had completely backfired,” he said. 

King said that the British government had taken over running the Northern Ireland government when it had collapsed in previous occasions and said the Dublin and London governments should share responsibility if Paisley’s DUP tries to block the agreement. 

He also said that the agreement was still supported by the majority of people in Northern Ireland. 

President Bush’s National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice said last week she was warned weeks before the Northern Ireland election that voters might swing towards hardline positions. She said that she had discussed such a scenario with the U.S. envoy to Northern Ireland Richard Haass. 

Rice said that there was general concern about the outcome of the election, but said that she believed that the people of Northern Ireland would stick by the Good Friday Agreement. 

“Of course everybody is concerned and sure that there will be discussions,” she said. “I would hope that any leadership would recognize that the Good Friday Agreement gives an opportunity for Northern Ireland to continue to develop.” 

Rice spoke after election results showed that Paisley’s DUP had eclipsed the more moderate Ulster Unionist Party as the largest Protestant party in Northern Ireland, while Sinn Fein had increased its lead over the more moderate SDLP.

Rice said she was confident that the election result would not derail the move for peace in Northern Ireland. 

“I do believe that, after having a tasting of peace, that the people of Northern Ireland desperately want peace. They’re seeing an expanding economy; they’re seeing life return to normal,” she said.

Co-chairman of the House Ad Hoc Committee on Ireland, Congressman Richard Neal, said that the election results were encouraging because more than half of those elected to the Assembly were from pro-Agreement parties. 

The Democratic Congressman for Massachusetts said that there were still outstanding issues to be resolved such as policing, criminal justice and equality but he believed that the parties are now “one step closer towards the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.” 

New York Democratic Congressman Joe Crowley said he was encouraged by the pro-Agreement vote but recognized that some of those elected for the Ulster Unionist Party were anti-Agreement. 

He said that the DUP had to recognize the will of the majority and not try to block the agreement or create a crisis within unionism. 

The president of the Irish American Demo-

crats political action committee, Stella O’Leary, said that the DUP should not be allowed to veto the democratic wish of the people of Northern Ireland. 

She said it would be “freakish” if the views of one party could exercise such power over the democratic process.