Biden: Return Of Power-sharing N.Ireland Government An 'important Step'

Washington, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Feb, 2024) US President Joe Biden on Saturday welcomed the restoration of the Northern Ireland executive and assembly and commended political leaders there "for taking the necessary steps to restore these core institutions."

"I look forward to seeing the renewed stability of a power-sharing government that strengthens the peace dividend, restores public services, and continues building on the immense progress of the last decades. This is an important step," Biden said in a statement.

Earlier Saturday, Northern Ireland's lawmakers restored its devolved assembly after a two-year suspension. That paved the way for a power-sharing government led for the first time by a pro-Irish unity nationalist, Sinn Fein's Michelle O'Neill.

The power-sharing arrangement crafted in the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, which ended decades of violence, fell apart in 2022 when members of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) -- who want to maintain Northern Ireland's ties to Britain -- launched a boycott to protest Brexit provisions seen to threaten Northern Ireland's place within the United Kingdom.

After lengthy negotiations with the British government, the unionists this week announced an end to the boycott, which had paralyzed the Northern Ireland assembly and local executive, where the unionists share power with nationalists who favor a united and independent Ireland.

O'Neill on Saturday hailed her "historic" appointment.

"This is an historic day and it does represent a new dawn," she told fellow lawmakers after they selected her to lead the restarted government. She pledged to cooperate with those of all affiliations.

Biden, whose ancestors came from Ireland, visited Northern Ireland last April to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.