The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) has stated that its five-year-old ceasefire remains intact but added that it had no intention of handing over its arsenal of weapons and explosives.
The INLA said it remained opposed to the Belfast Agreement but in a statement marking the fifth anniversary of its ceasefire said it was holding to its cessation because the majority of people on the island of Ireland supported the Good Friday deal.
The INLA said it did "not see a return to armed struggle as a viable alternative at this time". It added: "Five years on the INLA ceasefire is solid.
"We recognise that the republican struggle has to take a new direction and we call on all other republican forces to enter into dialogue with us and other republicans to discuss the way forward in the new situation we all find ourselves in.
"Now is not the time for the failed strategies and tactics of the past. Now is the time for a new departure."
On the issue of decommissioning, the INLA said that "with the increasing disillusionment within loyalist ranks over the whole so-called peace process and with whole sections of the UDA rejecting the Good Friday Agreement while the UVF re-arms, now is not the time for any republicans to be even considering negotiating any arms surrender.
"A squalid political deal that exchanges guns for government was not what the republican struggle of the past was about. Such a deal is in effect an attempt to hide and cover up what has been in effect a defeat for republicanism.
"Running Stormont departments does not and will not hide that reality," the organisation added.
It described the agreement as failed and flawed and Northern Ireland as a failed political entity. "Nothing that occurred since then has persuaded us to change our minds on the Good Friday Agreement.
"Four suspensions of the Assembly, a massive increase in sectarianism, the introduction of a neo-liberal economic agenda, the failure of mainstream unionism to actively accept an equality agenda, and continuing direct rule by the British Government confirms the correctness of our analysis," it stated.
"Five years on from our ceasefire there is still a role for the INLA. We will remain vigilant in defence of working class communities but we will not take offensive action," the INLA added.
The organisation said it would try to resolve disputes within the working class community but would not get involved in policing the community.
It added: "We warn those who used and abused the name of the INLA within working class communities to intimidate and extort to desist forthwith. We are aware of individuals who use our name as a flag of convenience. Your day is done."
