Republican Sinn Fein has expressed anger at the Provisional IRA's offer to agree a method with the International Commission on Decommissioning to put its weapons beyond use. However, the party said it was not surprised by the move given the organisation's "total abandonment of republicanism".
Republican Sinn Fein vice-president Mr Des Long said that the Provisional IRA and Sinn Fein had completely accepted Partition. "These people decided to go into Leinster House and then they went into Stormont. Further betrayals of republicanism are unsurprising.
"They have accepted Partition and their ministers at Stormont uphold British rule in Ireland. No republican should be surprised by this latest treachery. However, all republicans will be angry at it. These weapons were procured for the freedom of Ireland and now they are being destroyed at the behest of the British.
"No republican would have any part in such an act. Let no one be under any illusion - these people will enter Westminster next."
Mr Rory Dougan, of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, which security sources claim is the "Real IRA's" political wing, said the group was not surprised by the latest development.
"Decommissioning was part and parcel of the Good Friday agreement and when the Provisional leadership accepted the agreement, they were going to have to fulfil the undertakings they signed up to.
"Within the wider republican family, there is sadness that the Provisional leadership's promise of `not a bullet, not an ounce' has been clearly abandoned. It is nonsense for them to attempt to portray the surrender of weapons as a victory by linking it to demilitarisation in south Armagh."