Any move by the British and Irish governments to accede to unionist demands for sanctions against parties deemed in breach of the Good Friday agreement, would itself be regarded by Sinn Féin as a breach of the agreement, the party's chairman has said.
Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, speaking at a meeting of the party's ardchomhairle in Dublin yesterday, said: "Departure from the Good Friday agreement in the current negotiations in favour of David Trimble demands for sanctions against republicans would represent a clear and present danger to the process".
The "negative behaviour of the UUP and their refusal to engage in negotiations" remained "an ongoing concern", he said.
Mr McLaughlin said his party was engaged in a number of bilateral meetings with parties to the agreement, as well as with both governments, in an effort to "resolve the current crisis", although he said there was "very little likelihood of a breakthrough on Monday".
"It is ridiculous that 10 years into this process that the unionist approach still revolves around the exclusion of republicans. We need to see an end to the anti-agreement dead hand over the process and a plan for full implementation [of the agreement]."
Asked about the likelihood of any last-minute gesture by the republican movement over the weekend, he said the Sinn Féin negotiating team was "in intensive negotiations", was seeking full engagement by the other parties and that it would be "on standby for that engagement". He dismissed as a "nonsense" suggestions that other parties to the negotiations were unclear what Sinn Féin's bottom line was.
"All the parties have supplied details of their bottom line."
The focus of Sinn Féin's discussions was around what Tony Blair has described as acts of completion for the Good Friday agreement on all of the outstanding matters, he said.
These were policing, demilitarisation, criminal justice, equality and human rights.
