Sinn Féin second press conferenceBefore travelling to Hillsborough for the latest talks session last night, the Sinn Féin president, Mr Gerry Adams, said he did not know how the situation could be rescued.
Mr Adams met the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, at Hillsborough Castle last night to try to avoid an irretrievable political collapse.
Mr Ahern and Mr Blair, through Mr Adams as a possible intermediary with the IRA, were trying to find a means by which what was actually decommissioned in the third IRA act of disarmament announced by the decommissioning body yesterday could be more credibly presented to the public.
A carefully organised sequence of events had been proceeding smoothly to conclusion yesterday when it was stalled, and possibly fatally damaged, by the terms under which Gen John de Chastelain explained the nature of this latest act of IRA disarmament.
Gen de Chastelain, head of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD), said that light, medium and heavy weaponry, plus explosives, had been rendered beyond use in this decommissioning event.
But he explained that at the request of the IRA - which under the IICD's rules he was bound to honour - he could not provide specific detail of what was decommissioned.
The Taoiseach, in a teatime press conference with Mr Blair, indicated that he had some sympathy with Mr Trimble's position. He said the point Mr Trimble made was "very obvious".
However, Mr Adams at his evening press conference expressed profound disappointment that Mr Trimble had decided to interrupt the sequence of events that would have concluded the deal.
This, from a republican perspective particularly, required Mr Trimble to make commitments that he would fully work the institutions of the Belfast Agreement.
"We as a leadership, and I suppose everyone that has invested time and energy into this process, is profoundly disappointed and surprised at this latest turn of events," he said.
At yesterday's afternoon press conference held at Hillsborough, Gen de Chastelain had provided considerable detail about the nature of the weapons and explosives decommissioned by the IRA.
Mr Trimble's rejection of this element of the deal had created "profound difficulties", he said, adding that he was travelling to Hillsborough for talks with the two leaders to determine if the situation could be rescued.
"I don't know how this can be sorted out," said the Sinn Féin leader.
"I don't know how a commission which was set up by agreement, which operates under the scheme appointed by the governments, which makes this type of report, how all of that can be changed, corrected, nuanced, elaborated on to suit the needs of any particular party at this time.
"I do not know how, when one party unilaterally moves to suspend a sequence, this can be put together in the short term," added Mr Adams.
A Sinn Féin source also suggested that the chance of retrieving the situation was undermined by Mr Trimble's decision to announce his move at a press conference, rather than by contacting Mr Adams first to determine if there was any solution to the crisis.
The same source said that, rather than recrimination, the focus must be on finding a solution.
"The business now is to sort this out," he added.
Sources at Hillsborough were making the same point last night. "There was a substantial act of decommissioning by the IRA, but because of the confidentiality issue we can't explain that to ordinary people in terms that they would understand," said one insider.
"We need a degree of flexibility on this issue from republicans," he added.
The crisis served to exacerbate the divisions within the UUP. Mr Trimble had hoped that this deal would undermine his internal anti-Belfast Agreement opponents.
However, his chief dissident, Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, said the stalling of the deal was a "major embarrassment" for Mr Trimble.
He said Sinn Féin and the IRA had "hung him out to dry".
However, a former Assembly member and supporter of Mr Trimble said that under the agreed deal there was a clear chain of events to unfold, but that the IRA had broken the link by failing to be transparent on what was decommissioned.
He said Mr Trimble was "holding tough" by insisting such clarity must be provided.
