The Ulster Democratic Party walked out of the multi-party talks process at Lancaster House in London yesterday, insisting it had decided to leave voluntarily rather than be "humiliated" by expulsion. The UDP leader, Mr Gary McMichael, said the party wished to return to the talks as soon as possible.
Mr McMichael told a press conference that only the PUP, the Women's Coalition and the Labour Party supported the UDP's continued presence at the talks.
The remaining parties, he said, did not want their "fingerprints" on the decision to remove them from the talks and had left the two governments to decide their fate. The UDP would not wait for that decision.
"We want to make it clear that we're not walking away from this process. We remain as fundamentally committed to the process of negotiations and this peace process today as we did yesterday, as we did three years ago."
In a statement to the plenary session of the talks, the UDP said it endorsed the Mitchell Principles and its commitment to them remained "unequivocal. We are as appalled by recent violence as the other participants . . . every effort has been made by the entire leadership of the UDP to utilise our influence to its fullest extent to bring that violence to an end."
Mr McMichael said the process would be "seriously hampered" by the UDP's exclusion.
The UFF's statement last week that it would renew its ceasefire was a positive contribution to the peace process.
He was "absolutely satisfied" that the UFF had not been involved in any murders since the ceasefire announcement last week, and that the party did not believe that it had been betrayed by the UFF.
"The reason we have been ejected from these negotiations is because we exercised our influence and in some small way contributed to bringing one element of the violence to its end. Unfortunately, because that was done in an honest way, when the UFF made a statement in an honest way, we are penalised because of that.
"The absence of any party from these negotiations makes it more difficult for negotiations to succeed. It therefore fuels instability. But under no circumstances are we arguing that because of the events which have taken place that the UFF ceasefire should end or that there should be an escalation of violence."