Sinn Féin's chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness, has rejected allegations levelled by Mr Freddy Scappaticci that he was a leading IRA figure up to the 1990s.
Speaking in Washington, Mr McGuinness stood by his evidence to the Bloody Sunday inquiry that he left the IRA in 1974 after serving with its unit in Derry.
The allegations were made by Mr Scappaticci in a UTV documentary on Monday night. He has now left Belfast after receiving threats, but is continuing to deny that he was the informer "Stakeknife".
Mr McGuinness further denied Mr Scappaticci's allegation that he was involved in the murder of Derry IRA informer, Mr Frank Hegarty, who was tortured and shot in Donegal.
"I had absolutely no role in what happened to Frank Hegarty and I was not a member of the IRA in the 1990s, or indeed in the 1980s. I made my position on IRA membership clear at the Bloody Sunday tribunal.
"That is my position. I refute in their entirety all of the allegations that have been made against both myself and Gerry Adams in the programme," he told The Irish Times.
He went on: "I have been of the view that ever since we heard the name of Stakeknife and heard the linkage with Mr Scappaticci that there were people in the British military establishment who wanted Mr Scappaticci killed and who wanted him killed by the IRA in order for that to have a detrimental effect on the peace process."
He said these people were "still fighting the same war" they had been fighting in 1973 and that they were determined to do as much damage to the peace process as they could.
