The North's Deputy First Minister and SDLP deputy leader, Mr Seamus Mallon, said he regrets the suspension of the North's political institutions and last night stressed that it made the achievement of IRA decommissioning "substantially more difficult".
Mr Mallon said two non-elected groups had temporarily ended the institutions.
"Those two sets of people are the IRA and the members of the Ulster Unionist Council".
He said the North's First Minister and UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, had taken a brave step by setting up the Executive and North-South bodies.
However, Mr Mallon queried "a set of circumstances where in effect institutions of this nature are actually suspended because of the predicament of one of the parties concerned".
According to Mr Mallon, there was always an alternative to suspension.
"I note the statement from Mr Adams this evening and I note his reference to Gen de Chastelain. I will await that report from Gen de Chastelain, I want to see it and I want to measure it against the criteria that the Taoiseach himself has been using."
He said he would suspend his judgment on the situation until he saw this report.
Mr Mallon added there was much at stake and the process was not over.
The public would find it hard to believe direct rule had returned, Mr Mallon said.
They would ask why institutions that were working well, that were serving the people and had become a focal point for the people of Northern Ireland had been suspended, he added.
Mr Mallon warned that a second review of the implementation of the Belfast Agreement would take a considerable amount of time to organise and even longer to execute.
He said Mr Mandelson had yet to outline how suspension would operate or the structure of the review.
"Those are all matters that have not been clarified and yet we have a situation where institutions have ended without any information or clarity in relation to those things."