The hardball tactics provide a comfort blanket for Provo hard men, writes Dan Keenan, Northern News Editor.
Gerry Adams flagged it last weekend - the IRA is not going to disappear because the British government or Ulster Unionists would like it to. Yesterday's announcement provides proof of that.
While Tony Blair would like the paramilitaries out of the picture to facilitate the political process, the IRA has other ideas.
Its tactic, withdrawal from Gen de Chastelain's International Independent Commission on Decommissioning, has been used before. As on this occasion, the move that prompted it was the stroke of the Northern Secretary's pen which suspended the Stormont institutions in February 2000.
Re-entry was facilitated by resurrection of devolution and there was a significant move to allow arms inspectors Cyril Ramaphosa and Martti Ahtisaari to view IRA dumps within weeks. There was a move to "put weapons beyond use" in October 2001 and another the following March.
This short history of IRA withdrawal of co-operation with Gen De Chastelain allows government sources in both Belfast and Dublin to play down what are in effect IRA hardball tactics. They'll be back, they say. It's a ritual gesture, a comfort blanket for Provo hard men, an exercise in cold war huffing.
No doubt it is the sort of move which will add an edge to Martin McGuinness's arguments when he and other Sinn Féiners meet Paul Murphy for the first time today since the latter's arrival as Northern Secretary.
Mr McGuinness's war, like Joe Cahill's and that of other republicans, may well indeed be over. But there are those, according to P. O'Neill - the traditional signatory of Provisional IRA statements - who are still on "complete cessation" since 1997, still committed to finding a path out of conflict and who have "acted unilaterally to save and enhance the peace process", and they're not happy.
They're not in the business of surrender or anything that smacks of it and neither Tony Blair nor anyone else can wish them away.
But there's more to it than just that. The IRA appears keen to see itself as part of some sort of solution as it is to shed the tag of errant players in the current crisis.
Prior to the PSNI raid on Sinn Féin offices at Parliament Buildings and other addresses, the blame for the seemingly inevitable suspension of the institutions appeared destined for the shoulders of Ulster Unionists. The spy-ring allegations changed all that, leaving the IRA as villains of the piece - or should that be "peace".
Yesterday's move by the Provisionals could indicate a need to make the point that they are not the only ones that need to make the sort of quantum leap demanded by Mr Blair, Mr Ahern, Richard Haass and others.
Again just as Gerry Adams tried to put the focus back on the British government with his Monaghan speech, the IRA has chimed in pressing in its own way for the Blair government to make significant moves on policing and on politics.
Republicans want more than what Tony Blair promised in his Belfast speech two weeks ago. He offered swift and complete implementation of the Belfast Agreement in return for an end to paramilitarism. They don't trust the British to deliver politically and this is undermining them. They want an implementation timetable and evidence of commitment.
The IRA statement is therefore to be seen more of a difficulty than a disaster. It is the Provisionals' way of saying "it isn't just up to us, others have obligations too - and it's high time they delivered".
Today's meeting between a Sinn Féin delegation and the Northern Secretary could provide the clearest indication yet of what republicans need, and Queen Elizabeth's speech at the opening of the new Westminster term on November 13th could clarify how much they're going to get.