US briefing: Sinn Féin chief negotiator Martin McGuinness yesterday briefed US officials and members of Congress on the IRA statement, and said he would like to see the complete decommissioning of IRA weapons happen "tomorrow".
"The high temperature in Washington has passed. This is a beautiful day," he told a press conference on Capitol Hill, drawing a parallel between the recent Washington heatwave and the heated rhetoric against Sinn Féin over the Northern Bank robbery and the murder of Belfastman Robert McCartney earlier this year.
The Mid-Ulster MP pointedly praised the role in the peace process of US president George Bush "who has always been a friend to Ireland".
Mr McGuinness earlier had briefed the US special envoy Mitchell Reiss on the decision of the republican movement and had spoken on the telephone with former president Bill Clinton, who he said was "very excited and enthused" at the prospect of the IRA statement. For Mr Clinton and other supporters of the peace process in Washington, the IRA decision to abandon armed struggle is the culmination of more than a decade of involvement with Sinn Féin aimed at achieving this result.
Mr McGuinness emphasised that his party wanted to develop friendly relations with the Rev Ian Paisley and the Democratic Unionist Party in the wake of the IRA statement. "We have stretched out the hand of friendship to Tony Blair and he has accepted it. President Bush has also accepted our hand of friendship, the Taoiseach has accepted our hand of friendship, what we want to see now is Ian Paisley accept our hand of friendship," he said.
People of all political beliefs in Ireland "know in their heart of hearts that the logical outworking of the statement is a coming together of the political representatives in the North and the political representatives of the North and South to form the power-sharing executive and the all-Ireland ministerial council which are the bedrock of the Good Friday Agreement," he said.
"Ian Paisley's DUP must put the past behind them, to end intolerance, bigotry and triumphalism, and to make peace with their Irish nationalist neighbours, North and South."
Mr McGuinness said it was the inescapable responsibility of the British and Irish governments "to press urgently again for the implementation of the Good Friday agreement and also for the leaders of unionism to fully accept the principle of power-sharing and equality".
The British government "must stop pandering to negative unionism and energetically address demilitarisation, equality and human rights".
Mr McGuinness rejected the suggestion that the IRA decision had been influenced by the recent bombings in London.
Sinn Féin was against the bombings and "totally opposed" everything the bombers in London were doing.
"The people involved in these activities should desist and learn the lesson of the Irish peace process," he said, adding that the announcement by the IRA "has to have some effect on those involved in these ongoing activities."