THE text of the Combined Loyalists Military Command statement is:
We have taken careful note of the last IRA statement which contains the threat to continue the war for the next 25 years.
Threats of war, or war itself, will not lessen our resolve for Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom so long as the greater number of our citizens require it.
Arrogance and outdated ideology does not impress us and has no place in a modern society.
The IRA must come to terms with the indisputable fact that we, the unionist people, are the British presence in Northern Ireland and our democratic desire, freely and continually expressed, cannot and will not be changed, as has been clearly demonstrated over 70 years, by threats, bombs or even death itself.
Have no lessons been learned from the past; are our people, all our people, to be subjected to interminable warfare; must we listen to the cries of our women and children for another lifetime? We must not permit the past to dominate our future.
From a position of confidence, strength and sophistication, we have withstood the recent provocation of IRA bombs on the mainland which have killed our innocent British fellow citizens. These atrocities cannot be permitted to continue without a telling response from this source.
We are poised and ready to strike to effect. We will give blow for blow. As in the past, whatever the cost, we will gladly pay it. Now is the time to draw back from the brink!
We genuinely want peace and we truly desire that wholesome society which all decent people demand. Despite the frustration we all occasionally feel, the democratic process is the only way forward.
Throughout the proceedings of the past 18 months we have been honest, honourable and principled and, having acknowledged the need for sociological change, we have played our part to the full.
Our society has changed, is changing and will, continue to change.
Unprecedented dialogue between political parties is taking place and will intensify in the future. New ground is constantly being broken and old animosities gradually laid to rest.
We are convinced that sufficient political agreement can be reached in order to allow all of our citizens to have an equal and meaningful stake in the new society that is coming.
We all have had hard decisions to make in the cause of peace. The IRA and Sinn Fein must now choose and choose well.