Elliott 'would have no difficulty'meeting dissidents
Rodney Edwards • Published 16 Feb 2012 13:00
0 Comments
ULSTER Unionist leader Tom Elliott has said he is willing to meet with dissident republicans.
The Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA also revealed he recently held talks with a loyalist group.
Mr. Elliott announced his willingness to talk to dissidents during The Impartial Reporter's Twitter Q&A last week. Responding to a question from a reader, he tweeted: "I will discuss issues with others provided it is not on the basis of a threatening and terrorist nature."
The comments caused a flurry of tweets on the social network with many criticising the UUP leader.
Asked to clarify his position, Mr. Elliott told this newspaper afterwards that he would meet with dissidents providing they weren't engaged in terrorist activity.
"If they are people within the dissident republican movement or in the dissident loyalist movement and had genuine concerns about the way their organisations were moving forward politically and their sole aim was to do it through peaceful means then I would have no difficulty," he said.
Asked if he has met with any dissident republicans yet, he said: "Not that I'm aware of - I haven't met with any deliberately but obviously you don't know. I have met with one particular loyalist group who would be committed to peaceful means but wouldn't be content with the overall direction of Unionism," he said.
This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 16 Feb 12
Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our News archives.
