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Writing Peace: The National Archives of the UK (TNA)

Record of a conversation between Peter Westmacott and Nancy Soderberg on 13 July 1996

Saturday, 13 July 1996

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This document details a meeting between Peter Westmacott, a Counsellor in the British Embassy in Washington, and Nancy Soderberg, US Deputy National Security Advisor, that took place on 13 July 1996. Soderberg described the negative reactions expressed by various Northern Ireland political actors as well as members of the US Government in response to the decisions made by Chief Constable Hugh Annesley during the Drumcree crisis. Westmacott defended the decision, while Soderburg said that the decision itself was less offensive than the manner in which the decision had been taken. Soderberg expressed hope that the events would allow leaders to communicate with each other, asked whether George Mitchell could carry out proximity talks instead of carrying on with business-as-usual when negotations resumed. Westmacott also presented the line that he planned to take with Soderberg the next time he was able to speak with her, in which he would state that Irish Taoiseach John Bruton's statement of 12 July 1996 had been damaging to the British Government, and that no one in the administration was inclined to establish dialogue with Sinn Féin in light of on-going PIRA [Provisional Irish Republican Army] violence. As a result, the British Government would not be able to act on the recommendations that Soderberg had made immediately.

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