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Former US president Jimmy Carter was suggested for a Northern Ireland peace process role, official files show.<\/p>\nFormer US president Jimmy Carter was suggested for a Northern Ireland peace process role, official files show.<\/p>\n
Speculation was mounting in January 1993 that president-elect Bill Clinton would appoint a special envoy.<\/p>\n
British Foreign Office official Jonathan Powell mentioned Mr Carter in a note disclosed in an archived British government file released by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) in Belfast.<\/p>\n
Mr Powell described how former congressman Bruce Morrison, then head of the Irish Americans for Clinton lobby group, envisaged the envoy.<\/p>\n
An Irish American like (Bill) Flynn would have too much baggage<\/p>\n
Mr Powell wrote: \u201cHe (Morrison) did not envisage an Irish American filling the role.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn Irish American like (Bill) Flynn would have too much baggage.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe envisaged instead someone completely independent, like Jimmy Carter, or someone in the same mold but of lower profile.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Carter only served one term in office but became a diplomat and mediator around the world. He worked on the Middle East peace process and tried to encourage talks between North and South Korea.<\/p>\n
In 1993 a statement from the Friends of Ireland in the US said: \u201cOn this St Patrick\u2019s Day, the Friends of Ireland in the US Congress join with Irish Americans\u2026 in calling for renewed efforts to achieve peace, reconciliation and justice in Northern Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the event, former Democratic senator George Mitchell was appointed as envoy in 1995, securing a commitment to non-violence from the gunmen and ultimately becoming the architect of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.<\/p>\n
Successive envoys including Richard Haass and Gary Hart have helped maintain US involvement in Northern Ireland\u2019s peace process.<\/p>\n
The newly released file also covered the opposition of UK officials to the US visa offered to former Sinn F\u00e9in president Gerry Adams.<\/p>\n
Notes of a meeting between the US ambassador to the UK and the prime minister\u2019s private secretary said: \u201cUnless Mr Adams\u2019 visit is followed by a rapid and permanent end to the IRA\u2019s violence, there is no question that it will have done huge damage to the (Joint) Declaration.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe warned of this ahead of the visit in the strongest possible terms.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Downing Street Declaration between former prime minister John Major and ex-Taoiseach Albert Reynolds in 1993 laid the framework for the peace process which was to follow.<\/p>\n