Britain "looks foolish in the eyes of the world" by not recognising that the Provisional IRA is part of the international terrorist network, a Tory member of the House of Lords claimed yesterday.
The British government was pressed at Lords question time on the position of the IRA after the September 11th terrorist attacks on the New York Twin Towers.
Baroness Park of Monmouth said: "We have two ministers in the Northern Ireland Assembly who are members of Sinn FΘin/IRA and one of them has just become a public member of the Provisional Council of the IRA."
Sinn FΘin had entertained the Basque terrorist organisation, ETA, at its last conference in Dublin and raised money to help train terrorists in Colombia, said Lady Park.
"We look foolish, in the eyes of the world and in Europe and most of all in the eyes of the United States, if we do not recognise the fact that this movement, whatever the importance of the peace process, is a part of the international terrorist groups.
"The peace process will not be helped by ignoring those facts and not remembering that the majority of the people of Northern Ireland voted to remain part of the United Kingdom."
She said Sinn FΘin/IRA still had "guns under the table," and continued to terrorise its own communities.
Last month, the Tory party leader, Mr Iain Duncan Smith MP, said the IRA would have to be targeted in any international war against terrorism.
Mr Duncan Smith made his comments within days of being elected successor to Mr William Hague as leader of the Conservatives.
Yesterday, Lord Rooker, for the British government, said the peace process had "over-riding importance", in trying to bring peace to the province.
"At various points over the past 30 years, links with these groups have been a matter of concern, but it doesn't alter the fact that the peace process is the best chance we have."
Earlier he told Tory Viscount Bridgeman that the Provisional IRA remained proscribed in the UK as an illegal terrorist organisation, even though it had been on ceasefire since 1997.
He added that the peace process offered the best chance in generations for "finally ridding Northern Ireland of the scourge of politically motivated violence".