Ira Offers Cease-Fire If Sinn Fein At Talks

The Irish Republican Army will call a cease-fire if the British government lets their political allies participate in peace negotiations, a moderate Catholic leader said Friday.

John Hume asked the British government to include the IRA-allied Sinn Fein party in Northern Ireland’s peace dialogue to end a string of bombings that began in February, when the previous ceasefire collapsed.

On Thursday, British army experts defused a car bomb outside police headquarters in Hume’s hometown of Londonderry that had been left by a dissident IRA faction, which may oppose negotiations.