MOSCOW, October 1 (RIA Novosti) - The US will contribute to peace talks in Northern Ireland, Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Charles Flanagan told RTE News.
According to the Minister, the American administration will join a fresh round of public dialogue organized by the Irish and British authorities.
Flanagan bases his belief in Washington’s “constructive” role on the results of his recent meeting with US Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry. The plans to conduct upcoming inter-party discussions were declared on Sunday by Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers. In her speech during the Conservative party conference she emphasized that "disputes over flags, parades and the past are consuming ever increasing amounts of time and resources".
The above-mentioned parties are joining forces in an attempt to break a political impasse connected with the relations between unionists and nationalists in Northern Ireland. The groups express their views with parades, paying the special attention to the memory of the Troubles, a thirty-year civil conflict between the unionists and the nationalists. Protestant unionists wanted Northern Ireland to remain under the Union Jack whereas Catholic nationalists promoted the idea of secession from the UK and joining the Republic of Ireland. Violent clashes between 1968 and 1998 took lives of more than 3,600 people. In addition to that, about 3,300 of those death cases were not prosecuted.
