A MOOD of low expectation returned to Castle Buildings, Stormont, yesterday after a weekend of speculation that a deal could he finally achieved on decommissioning.
The SDLP, the Ulster Unionist Party and the Alliance Party had drafted an 11-paragraph document which various talks delegates predicted could break the arms deadlock and put extra pressure on the IRA to declare a ceasefire.
The key element of the document provided for decommissioning to be dealt with in parallel to substantive talks, as suggested in the Mitchell report, according to SDLP and Alliance sources.
This element does not specify when decommissioning would start, the sources added. Initially, they said, the UUP appeared willing to sign up to such an agreement, although such a move apparently contradicted its earlier position - adopted in conjunction with the DUP and UK Unionist Party - that some prior IRA decommissioning was necessary before Sinn Fein could enter substantive talks.
This had raised hopes that disarmament could be resolved before the talks adjourn for Christmas tomorrow. Had the prior decommissioning demand been removed it would also have severely dented the republican movement's argument that an IRA ceasefire was not possible at this stage.
The climate of expectation changed yesterday, however. Following a plenary session of the talks chaired by former Senator Mitchell yesterday the UUP readopted its original position on decommissioning, talks sources said - a charge the UUP denied.
SDLP and Alliance sources complained that conflicting signals on the issue were coming from UUP delegates such as Mr David Trimhle, Mr Ken Maginnis and Mr John Taylor.
They claimed that through last week intensive discussions involving the three parties had made significant ground, but that yesterday the UUP returned to its original stance.
The trilateral meetings were designed to find agreement on how an international commission on disarmament would deal with decommissioning, working with a talks committee.
Sources say that nearly all 11 points in the document are agreed with "a couple" of paragraphs still to be decided.
An SDLP talks delegate said that after initial optimism, he was pessimistic about decommissioning being resolved before the Christmas adjournment.
"It is quite obvious that the Ulster Unionists are digging in their heels in respect of the whole issue of prior decommissioning and the entry-to-talks requirements for Sinn Fein," he said.
"This suggests to me that, they are not interested in making a great deal of progress at this stage," he added.
But the UUP vigorously disputed this allegation. A UUP talks source said there was no division within the party on how disarmament would be tackled and there was no disagreement on the need for prior decommissioning from the IRA.
And in contradiction of the SDLP/Alliance analysis of what transpired last week he said the trilateral talks were solely dealing with the mechanisms and methods of decommissioning and were separate from how Sinn Fein might enter talks.
He did not accept that conceding the need for an international body to deal with decommissioning parallel to substantive talks logically ruled out the need for prior IRA disarmament. "That's not the entire issue from our point of view," he said.
How could the UUP not demand prior decommissioning? he asked. The evidence following from various "thwarted bomb attacks proves that Sinn Fein and the IRA are not serious", he said. "If that changes we will look forward to that and address that change when it happens," the UUP talks delegate added.
Despite the general air of pre-Christmas gloom at Stormont, one Alliance source insisted: "There is still a glimmer of hope we can strike a deal on decommissioning."
