Gerry Adams and other Sinn Féin leaders will today consider whether to proceed with an ardfheis on policing after an insistence by the Rev Ian Paisley that he has not made any commitment on powersharing and the transfer of policing powers to a restored Northern Executive.
Mr Adams is meeting party officers in Dublin today to assess whether the ardfheis on policing scheduled for later this month can now take place.
The angry response of DUP leader Dr Paisley to an article by British prime minister Tony Blair in yesterday's Irish Times has raised concern about the prospects of the Sinn Féin/DUP deadlock on policing being broken.
Mr Adams and Sinn Féin's chief negotiator, Martin McGuinness, supported in particular by the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, have sought further clarity from DUP leader Dr Paisley over recent days on whether he would agree to the St Andrews Agreement timetable of devolution by March 26th and the May 2008 target date for transferring policing powers.
Mr Blair attempted to break the standoff by providing a positive assessment in his article on where the DUP stood on powersharing and devolving policing.
He said that, provided Sinn Féin delivered properly on policing, his assessment was that the DUP would agree to powersharing by March 26th and to the transfer of policing powers by May next year.
However, Dr Paisley took a small number of journalists aside at Stormont yesterday to flatly contradict this assessment. He said he was "amazed" at Mr Blair's assessment and described it as "completely wrong". "I do not go with the assessment of the prime minister to say that we at any time in any talks that we ever had with him ever made any promises about when there would be the handing over of [policing and justice] powers," he said.
Shortly before Dr Paisley's briefing, Mr Adams, also at Stormont, again cautiously welcomed Mr Blair's comments. He warned, however, about "discordant" and "hysterical voices" from some DUP politicians who appeared opposed to a powersharing agreement. This confusion made it incumbent on Dr Paisley to spell out his position, said Mr Adams.
"This isn't about putting it up to Ian Paisley or to any of the DUP. There is a collective process involved here and let's all try to do our best to resolve all of these matters," he added. Mr Adams also implicitly adverted to the tensions within republicanism on policing and how a clearer response was required from Dr Paisley to end the impasse. He said that the "Sinn Féin leadership has to make a judgment about whether what we do is sustainable and capable of getting the support of other republicans".
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern, who held discussions with Northern Secretary Peter Hain near Dundalk yesterday, also appealed for further clarification from Dr Paisley.
Mr Ahern said this was "the chance of a lifetime" to find agreement and that if this happened the Government would be generous in financially supporting a deal.
The DUP's Ian Paisley junior said last night the ball was now firmly in Sinn Féin's court and for the first time Sinn Féin was being really tested in the peace process and they had to deliver.
"They should not be trading support for the police. They should be supporting the police because it is the right thing to do," he said on RTÉ's Questions and Answers programme.
Asked about whether the DUP would give a commitment that by May 2008 policing and justice would be under Stormont control if Sinn Féin supported policing, he said: "That's a load of nonsense. This process is not about dates...dating doesn't work...what we have to get down to is delivery."