SDLP spokesmen have asserted that an IRA threat to members of the public who "compromise" its operations has been issued because of clear indications in nationalist communities that there is opposition to a return to conflict.
The IRA warning, carried in the west Belfast paper, the Andersonstown News, admitted that people have phoned the RUC about the presence of IRA men in an area, even after being told that IRA operations were involved.
The statement said: "Over the past number of weeks, the Belfast brigade of the IRA has become aware that a number of people in the Belfast area have compromised operations and placed the lives of volunteers in danger.
"These individuals have informed the RUC of the presence of our volunteers in their area by phone even after our volunteers made it clear to them who they represented.
"Belfast Brigade IRA will take action against anyone placing the lives of our volunteers in danger in this way."
The statement is believed to have been prompted by the circumstances in which a number of planned IRA operations were aborted in recent weeks, including the planting of a large van bomb at Belfast Castle.
A West Belfast SDLP councillor, Mr Alex Attwood, said the IRA threat indicated it was worried its security had already been deeply compromised in the North, as it had been in England. It also indicated that the IRA knew that even its own community no longer fully supported it in a return to war.
Unionist councillors who met senior RUC officers last week said they had been told there was an "excellent" flow of intelligence at present and that this was undermining IRA operations.