President Clinton has been asked to designate both the IRA and Sinn Fein as terrorist organisations if the present ceasefire is broken. In a letter to the President, the powerful chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Jesse Helms, expresses disappointment that the IRA and Sinn Fein were not on the list of foreign terrorist organisations recently published by the State Department.
Senator Helms said that "failure to designate the IRA and Sinn Fein as such [terrorist organisation] undercuts long-standing US policy on terrorism. We must not coddle these people, no matter how strong their domestic political constituency."
The senator concludes his letter by asking President Clinton to designate the IRA and Sinn Fein as "foreign terrorist organisations" if the IRA breaks the present ceasefire.
Congressman Peter King, who like Senator Helms is a member of the Republican Party, expressed anger at the letter. He said Senator Helms "speaks for no one but himself" and speculated that he was prompted to act by "his friend, the Rev Ian Paisley".
Mr King said Senator Helms was trying "to undercut the peace process". The letter was very one-sided and did not mention loyalist paramilitaries.
Mr David Ervine of the Progressive Unionist Party said the letter was a matter for the US administration.