Senator George Mitchell returns to meet the Northern Ireland parties in Belfast today believing, one must assume, that hope still remains for a successful review of the Belfast Agreement. There is no certainty, at this point, that he will succeed where the two governments hitherto have failed to overcome the fundamental differences between the Ulster Unionist Party and Sinn Fein. His unenviable task is to facilitate a formula - indeed, some would say, impose the prescription - to enable a workable accommodation to be reached on the establishment of an inclusive executive in tandem with the decommissioning of IRA arms.
The prospects for success have tended to ebb and flow since Senator Mitchell adjourned the talks at the weekend and departed home to the United States. Much is made of the upbeat spin on developments from the participants in the intervening days. However, there is one remarkable feature about the current review. There is little hard information in the public domain about the negotiations behind closed doors. And that may be no bad thing in all the circumstances.
Senator Mitchell accepted the invitation of the two leaders, Mr Tony Blair and Mr Bertie Ahern, to return as "facilitator" for the review believing, as he first said in Washington last March, that history would forgive Northern leaders if they did not sign up for the Belfast Agreement. "But, having agreed it, it will never forgive you if you fail to make it work".
It is heartening to note, in this respect, that the latest opinion poll in the Belfast Telegraph yesterday gives encouragement to the politicians to strike a deal this week. A total of 65 per cent of people in Northern Ireland would vote Yes in a new referendum on the Belfast Agreement, among them 49 per cent of Protestant voters and 56 per cent of the UUP electorate. The figures become more promising when people were asked if they wanted the Belfast Agreement to work. Some 83 per cent overall said Yes, among them 72 per cent of the Protestant community, half of the DUP and 72 per cent of UUP supporters.
It could be expected that parties in a divided community would attach priority to different parts of the Belfast Agreement. But it is encouraging also that 88 per cent of Protestants and 63 per cent of Catholics in the poll are most disappointed with the lack of progress on decommissioning.
As the hopes of the people of this island - democratically expressed North and South in last year's referendums - hang on Senator Mitchell's review, the new Northern Secretary, Mr Mandelson, warned that people will not understand if this chance is allowed "to slip away". The First Minister-designate, Mr Trimble, urged his opponents again to show that change has been delivered. The Sinn Fein negotiator, Mr Gerry Kelly, said they had the commitment and the will "to make that into a larger hope".
There is no doubt that the Irish and British Governments will be compelled to pick up the pieces if Senator Mitchell's attempt to broker an honourable compromise on the most protracted difficulty in the peace process fails. It is the clear will of the people, however, that the political leaders in Northern Ireland should find their way round the "guns for government" impasse themselves.