BERNARD SHAW, CNN ANCHOR: We begin with Northern Ireland and a new development in the crisis there. The Irish Republican Army announced Tuesday no longer will it discuss handing in weapons. CNN's Nic Robertson has the story.</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Unionist politicians say the IRA's latest move calls into question its proposal last week that indicated it may disarm.</s>DAVID TRIMBLE, ULSTER UNIONIST LEADER: This obviously is an action which can only support those who viewed the so-called IRA offer on Friday evening as being simply a publicity gesture.</s>ROBERTSON: The IRA blames its withdrawal on the British government's decision to suspend the province's two month old power- sharing assembly. In a statement the IRA said, "Both the British government and the leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party have rejected the propositions put to the IICD, the International Independent Commission on Decommissioning, by our representatives." When British officials suspended the assembly Friday they rejected the IRA last-minute disarmament proposal, but the IICD later said the proposal offered a real prospect of disarmament. The political wing of the IRA was outraged by the British government's decision Friday and before the IRA's latest statement Tuesday that suggested London's actions were no longer impartial.</s>GERRY ADAMS, SINN FEIN LEADER: We have seen for Irish Republicans and nationalists the British government once again bringing back the veto which Unionists used to enjoy and which was effectively removed as a result of the Good Friday agreement.</s>ROBERTSON (on camera): The IRA have long said they will not disarm unless the power-sharing assembly is up and running, but Unionists say they will not go back into government unless guns are handed in. So the political stage is now set for what in the past have been protracted negotiations to unblock this now familiar impasse. Nic Robertson, CNN, London.
IRA Ends Discussion of Disarmament; N. Ireland's Political Figures Face Familiar Roadblock