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Powell: Northern Bank robbery most frustrating moment

FORMER Downing Street chief of staff Jonathan Powell has described 2004's Northern Bank robbery as his lowest point during the peace process negotiations.

Rather than highlighting an episode from the 1998 Good Friday Agreement negotiations or the collapse of the Stormont institutions four years later as his "most frustrating moment", Mr Powell described the £26.5 million heist as a low point.

Speaking on BBC's Talkback yesterday about plans for talks between the US government and the Taliban, the former aide to Tony Blair stressed the need to persevere when a crisis arose.

In the run-up to the Northern Bank robbery in December 2004, Direct rule was in place and efforts were under way to bring the DUP into the political process.

Mr Powell recalled how he arrived off the plane from London ahead of a meeting with Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness when he was greeted by a senior official from the Northern Ireland Office.

"He took me aside and told me the biggest robbery in world history had taken place and that the dogs in the street knew it was the IRA that done it," he said.

"I felt like getting back on the plane and giving up."

But the former Downing Street chief of staff said he persevered and yesterday he urged those who encounter problems with the Afghanistan peace process to do likewise.

"You've got to keep it going. It's like riding a bicycle and you mustn't let the bicycle fall over," he said.

"You must keep moving forward because if the bicycle falls over you'll find it incredibly difficult to pick it up again."

Mr Powell, right, said he believed the US government should have talked to the Taliban sooner rather than leaving it until a year before the planned withdrawal.