McGuinness meets with International Relations Committee
Sinn Féin Chief Negotiator Martin McGuinness was in Washington this
week for a series of meetings on Capitol Hill and at the White House.
He spoke at a large community event in New York on Monday night and
while in the city, he met with Niall O'Dowd and Bill Flynn, two men
who have been very instrumental in advancing American involvement in
the peace process.
Moving on to Washington D.C. on Tuesday, 4 May, McGuinness met with
members of the House International Relations Committee, the Ad-Hoc
Committee on Irish Affairs, and the Friends of Ireland at a meeting
hosted by Congressman Benjamin Gilman in the Capitol building.
There, he emphasised the seriousness of the impasse in the peace
process, given the failure to implement the most important aspects of
the Agreement. He said that any attempt to park the Agreement over
the summer would hand the initiative to those intent on wrecking the
entire peace process. He pointed to the attacks on nationalists,
which are ongoing, and the murder of Rosemary Nelson as frightening
examples of loyalist intentions and said that the unionist demand for
decommissioning has to be put in this context.
``There is real alarm not only at the failure to resolve this issue
but at the prospect of a political vacuum existing over the summer
period. It is frighteningly clear that the anti-Agreement unionists
and loyalists will use this space to destroy the Agreement.''
Speaking after the Press Conference, Congressman Gilman said: ``Today
we still see the old `unionist veto' in play. Once again the issue of
arms decommissioning is being used to prevent the establishment of
the cabinet executive as provided for in the Good Friday accord.''
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)