Clinton will be in Britain and Ireland just when the Bush/Gore election mess starts to really heat up! Does he know something we don't know? Does he want to miss the real fireworks?

CLINTON TO VISIT ULSTER TO REVIVE PEACE PROCESS

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/Ulster/2000-11/clinton281100.shtml

Clinton will visit Ulster to revive the peace process

By David McKittrick, Ireland Correspondent

28 November 2000

Bill Clinton is to pay his third visit to Belfast as US President in the middle of next month, partly in an attempt to revive the flagging Northern Ireland peace process.

Long-held speculation about a visit was confirmed yesterday by a White House spokesman, who said the President would spend three days in the UK and Ireland from 12 to 14 December.

Interest in the Northern Ireland problem has been a theme of both terms of the Clinton presidency, during which time the United States has become a major player in the peace process.

The outgoing President's close identification with the issue meant there were strong expectations that he would pay a third visit, partly to round off his involvement and partly to help lift the prevailing mood of pessimism in Belfast.

Although the Irish peace process remains beset by difficulties, the progress that has been made means it is considered one of Mr Clinton's foreign policy successes.

With the Unionists and republicans in continuing confrontation over the issue of arms decommissioning, there is a sense that January will bring another serious conflict between them.

Before the announcement of a visit was made, senior US State Department and White House aides went to Belfast to test the water and assess the state of the process. The visit will take place weeks before Mr Clinton leaves office.

A White House spokesman said: "Building on the progress that has been achieved on implementing the Good Friday accord, the President hopes that this visit will help to overcome current difficulties on the path to lasting peace."

He added that the visit came as a result of invitations from Tony Blair, the Irish Prime Minster, Bertie Ahern, and Northern Ireland's First and Deputy First Ministers, David Trimble and Seamus Mallon.

The first Clinton visit to Northern Ireland, in late 1995, was at the time considered a great success, though it was followed within weeks by the breakdown of the first IRA ceasefire and the bombing of Canary Wharf.

On the second visit the President and the First Lady, Hillary Clinton, visited the town of Omagh not long after the Real IRA bomb attack which killed 29 people there. They met many of those injured and bereaved by the bombing.

As London and Dublin continue efforts to get the peace process back on track, it is hoped Mr Clinton's visit will inject a feel-good factor and help step up pressure on local politicians.

Mr Trimble has banned Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness and Bairbre de Brun from attending North-South ministerial meetings until the IRA makes progress on disarmament, but they are mounting a legal challenge to the veto.

The Ulster Unionist leader will face a meeting of his party's ruling council in January, which could force him to pull out of power-sharing at Stormont, forcing the government to collapse, if there has been no progress on weapons.

Republicans say the IRA will not bow to Unionist pressure, while nationalist anger at the Police Bill, which they do not think goes far enough, has made the situation worse.

Mr Clinton is the first serving US President to visit Northern Ireland. He keeps in regular contact with Mr Blair and Mr Ahern and has phoned Mr Trimble and the Sinn Fein president, Gerry Adams, to show his support at critical times such as the hours before the signing of the Good Friday Agreement on 10 April 1998.

The next US administration is not expected to take such a close personal interest in Northern Ireland.