Hi °C | Lo °C Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern's warning to unionists - that greater cross border co-operation could be imposed if powersharing isn't agreed by November - could spark loyalist violence, the DUP has warned.
Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern's warning to unionists - that greater cross border co-operation could be imposed if powersharing isn't agreed by November - could spark loyalist violence, the DUP has warned.
Gregory Campbell, the East Londonderry MP who attended the British Irish Association Conference where Mr Ahern was speaking on Friday night, warned that the Minister's remarks would be viewed in some loyalist quarters as an excuse to return to violence.
In his address to the Association, Mr Ahern warned that if the DUP didn't successfully conclude negotiations with Sinn Fein to create a new powersharing administration at Stormont by the November 24 deadline, then the British and Irish Governments would press ahead to increase the scope and influence of cross border institutions.
But Mr Campbell warned that his remarks could have disastrous consequences and could reverse the current mood within loyalist paramilitary ranks to disband and perhaps decommission weapons.
"I have no doubt whatsoever that there are those in the unionist community, in loyalist paramilitary ranks, who will see the Minister's speech as an excuse to go back to the things 'that they do best', to borrow a phrase a Sinn Fein politician used about the IRA a few years ago," he said.
"Dermot Ahern has antagonised unionists by these comments and he has set back for years the programme of bringing the different traditions to a position of understanding and respect."
"I think what he did was disastrous", the MP warned.
