The IRA has withdrawn its offer to complete the decommissioning process. In a statement, the organisation said it had taken the offer to put its weapons beyond use off the table. The IRA, which denies claims it was behind the £26.5m Belfast bank raid, said the British and Irish governments had "tried its patience to the limit". Last year, the IRA said it would complete the decommissioning process within weeks and move into what it called a new mode. A Downing Street spokesman said they were not surprised by Wednesday's statement, passed to the An Phoblacht newspaper. "The fact remains that it was the IRA that did carry out the Northern Bank robbery and as the prime minister and the taoiseach said on Tuesday therefore it is the IRA that is the sole obstacle to moving forward," he said. However, the spokesman made it clear the government does not interpret the statement as a threat to return to terrorism. BBC correspondent Mark Simpson said the statement was "more of an IRA tantrum than anything more significant".Wednesday's statement said: "Our initiatives have been attacked, devalued and dismissed by pro-unionist and anti-republican elements, including the British government. The Irish government have lent themselves to this. At this time it appears that the two governments are intent on changing the basis of the peace process. They claim that 'the obstacle now to a lasting and durable settlement is the continuing paramilitary and criminal activity of the IRA'. We reject this."
DUP leader Ian Paisley said the statement proved the IRA never had any intention of decommissioning in a credible, transparent and verifiable way. "They never had any intention of giving up their criminal empire," he said. "The IRA had better realise that we will not be bullied or threatened and we will accept nothing less than the complete and utter end of all terror and criminal activity and the decommissioning of all their illegal weaponry in a transparent manner."