These are dangerous times in Northern Ireland. If it can be shown that the leadership of the Provisional IRA formally authorised the smuggling of high-powered weapons from Fort Lauderdale in Florida, or sanctioned the murder of Charles Bennett in Belfast, the consequences are serious for the peace process and for the Belfast Agreement. So far, the Irish and British Governments have declined to comment on the issues, as they await assessments of the situation from their security experts, but there is no disguising the concern that is generally felt.
The leader of Fine Gael, Mr Bruton, has called on the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister to make an authoritative statement on their joint understanding of the relationship between Sinn Fein and the IRA and on the type of paramilitary action that would disqualify Sinn Fein from executive participation. Without political accountability, he said, the Mitchell principles and the principles of non-violence in the Belfast Agreement are meaningless.
This newspaper has consistently maintained that the initiative in the decommissioning impasse had to rest with Sinn Fein/IRA and that the Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr Trimble, was right to insist that the republican axis must choose irrevocably, as he put it, between "the party" and "the army". Sinn Fein has denied any knowledge of the gun-running operation. And while no statement has been forthcoming from the Provisional IRA, security sources on both sides of the Atlantic believe that members of that organisation were involved. The fact that the conspiracy to import weapons was underway even as the two Governments were seeking to install Sinn Fein within a new Northern Ireland executive is a matter of particular concern.
Opponents of the Belfast Agreement within the DUP and the UKUP have already seized on these incidents as evidence of carefully planned treachery by republicans. And Mr David Irvine of the Progressive Unionist Party has expressed concern that the IRA ceasefire may be unravelling - something that has been denied by Sinn Fein. What is certain is that relations between Sinn Fein and the UUP will become more fraught as the parties prepare to engage in a series of private and public meetings. Already, Dr Martin Smyth of the UUP has ruled out sharing power with Sinn Fein in an executive, while Mr Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein has stated there is now no chance of IRA decommissioning being completed by May 2000.
The significance of these matters will almost certainly fall to be analysed by former US Senator, Mr George Mitchell, when he undertakes a review of the Belfast Agreement in September. Part of his brief in that regard will be to consult with General de Chastelain and to examine the willingness of the IRA to put all its arms beyond use, as provided for in the Belfast Agreement. At a time of such obvious stress within the peace process, it is a time for cool heads all around.