Joe Biden in Northern Ireland, a visit under high tension

A dozen people attacked police vehicles on Monday, April 10 in Derry, on the eve of Joe Biden's visit to Northern Ireland. AP - Peter Morrison

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2 min

In the United Kingdom, all eyes are riveted on Northern Ireland, which awaits the American president on Tuesday evening. Joe Biden is celebrating 25 years since the Good Friday Agreement ended three decades of conflict.

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With our correspondent in London, Marie Boëda

Molotov cocktails and projectiles targeted the police on Monday in Derry, the city of Bloody Sunday. At the origin of these clashes, dissident republicans, hostile to British domination and desiring a united Ireland. No casualties were reported.

As Northern Ireland awaits Joe Biden on the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, the police are on edge. According to MI5, the British intelligence service, an attack is highly likely during these celebrations, which would be a good opportunity for some dissident groups to make themselves heard.

► Read also: Northern Ireland commemorates 25 years of a fragile peace

Police say they have already foiled a terrorist plot. She is particularly wary of the new IRA, the new Irish Republican Army, which claimed responsibility for the attempted murder of an inspector last February. For the visit of the American president in the province, more than 300 agents from the rest of the United Kingdom should be mobilized. But according to an IRA professor at Queen's University Belfast, the risk of a return to high-level violence remains low.

A passage deemed "discreet"

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Upon his arrival in Belfast on Tuesday, Joe Biden will be greeted on the tarmac by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The two leaders will meet again the next day. The US president will deliver a speech at the just-opened University of Ulster, recalling the support of the United States in signing the peace agreement. He will then leave the United Kingdom for the land of his ancestors, the Republic of Ireland, where he will celebrate the deep and historic ties between the two countries.

The leader of the political party Sinn Fein, Michelle O'Neill regrets a "discreet" passage in the British province. The President will not even go to Stormont, the seat of the Assembly. Downing Street, for its part, does not see it as a disavowal. In addition to the context of terrorist threat, the American president has a busy schedule, reassures a minister. Nor will he go to the coronation of Charles III on May 6.

► Read also: International report – Joe Biden in Northern Ireland: a highly symbolic trip

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  • United Kingdom
  • United States
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