London/Belfast - The warring parties in the Middle East can
learn from the peace process in Northern Ireland by ending violence
through dialogue, leading nationalist politician Gerry Adams said
Monday.
Adams, the president of Sinn Fein, a party traditionally linked to
the formerly terrorist Irish Republican Army (IRA) paramilitary
organization, said that forces opposed to dialogue had for a long time
'perpetuated' the conflict in Northern Ireland.
Adams' party is known to have been in contact with Hamas and other
radical groups in the Middle East in an effort to convey the lessons
of the Northern Ireland peace process.
'We need to make clear that all hostilities, all armed actions in
that region should cease,' Adams told a group of anti-war protestors
in Belfast about the current situation in Gaza.
'That shouldn't be a precondition to the effort to establish a
peace settlement. Sinn Fein is arguing for direct dialogue,' he said.
'Direct dialogue in the Middle East means the Israeli government
recognizing the mandate that Hamas has and talking directly with
them,' he added.
Sinn Fein, which pleads for a united Ireland, was co-signatory to
the Northern Ireland peace agreement of 1998, which followed decades
of bloody civil strife between Catholics and Protestants in the
province.
Since then, the IRA has disbanded and Sinn Fein is now playing a
key part a major part in a power-sharing regional government in
Belfast.
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