British and Irish leaders agreed Wednesday on a "framework for peace" in Northern Ireland, hoping it would induce gunmen on both sides to give up after a quarter-century of killing.
"There is now a clear political path which is meaningful for all," said Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds, moments after signing the seven-page document with Britain's John Major.To the Irish Republican Army and its allies, they opened the door to holding exploratory negotiations within three months of a permanent cease-fire.
To the pro-British Protestant majority in Northern Ireland, they pledged that they would not be forced out of the United Kingdom so long as most people are opposed to a united Ireland.
There was no immediate reaction from the IRA. Protestant hard-liners condemned the agreement, but the main pro-British unionist party in Northern Ireland reacted cautiously.
"Our message is clear and it is simple: There is no future in violence. There is a fair and democratic future for all those who want to enter the political process," said Major, standing in front of a big Christmas tree outside his official residence at No. 10 Downing St.
"We believe that it is now up to those who used or supported violence to take that opportunity. The door is open to them. They won't have a better opportunity, and they don't have a better option," Major said.
Major said his government was prepared to talk to Sinn Fein, the political party that supports the IRA, "within three months when the cessation of violence has been clearly established."
"If they lose this opportunity it might never come their way again," Major said.
More than 3,100 people have been slain in the province, and 219 more in Britain and the Irish republic, since the political-religious conflict was rekindled in 1969.
The immediate test of the initiative is whether the IRA, which recently engaged in secret contacts with Major's government, would accept.
The bait dangled by the British included a statement that it had "no selfish strategic or economic interest in Northern Ireland." And it affirmed that it was for all the people of the island of Ireland "to exercise their right of self-determination on the basis of consent, freely and concurrently given, North and South, to bring about a united Ireland, if that is their wish."
The next question is whether the agreement was palatable as well to the pro-British Protestant majority in the province.
The Rev. Ian Paisley, leader of the hard-line Democratic Unionist Party, told reporters in Downing Street that it was not. He said Major had "sold Ulster to buy off the fiendish republican scum."
David Trimble, a lawmaker from the larger Ulster Unionist Party, said he was heartened that Britain had not promised to nudge the Protestant majority toward Irish union, as the Irish government had wanted.
But Trimble said Reynolds had not given meaningful concessions on repealing articles in the Irish constitution that claim the territory of Northern Ireland. Reynolds said the articles could be repealed as part of an overall settlement, while the unionists want them repealed without conditions.
The agreement was clinched in a day of intense diplomatic activity Tuesday, including two telephone calls between Major and Reynolds.
The hastily arranged meeting meant Major had to reschedule a meeting with Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Arafat's next stop, coincidentally, is in Dublin on Thursday.