Hillary Clinton Urges Northern Ireland to Move Peace Process Forward

“Northern Ireland has come a long way, old enemies are working together to build a stable, prosperous future,” Clinton told reporters today at the steps of the Assembly on the Stormont estate outside Belfast before entering the building to address lawmakers, adding that business opportunities “will come as investors gain even greater confidence in the long-term stability of Northern Ireland.”

Clinton is the first senior foreign dignitary to address the Assembly in the U.K. province, which is battling a recession that has seen property prices slump and unemployment soar amid the worst upsurge in terrorist violence in a decade.

A dispute over policing between the pro-U.K. Democratic Unionist Party and the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party has recently threatened the accord, negotiated in 1998 by former U.S. Senator George Mitchell, now President Barack Obama’s Middle East peace envoy. Clinton met with both parties earlier today.

Clinton’s visit follows one by U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who a week ago met with Northern Ireland’s political leaders in an attempt to resolve a disagreement over the appointment of a policing minister for the province.

Brown pushed for agreement between First Minister Peter Robinson of the DUP and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein on a schedule for the devolution of powers currently held by the British Parliament in London. The two parties are the biggest in the power-sharing Assembly.