Queen Approves Request To Suspend Parliament

LONDON (AP) – Ireland’s foreign minister says it’s too late to renegotiate Britain’s departure deal from the European Union.  Foreign Minister Simon Coveney on Wednesday reiterated Ireland’s opposition to the EU renegotiating the Brexit agreement approved by former U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May.  Coveney said there wouldn’t be enough time before Britain’s Oct. 31 departure deadline “even if we wanted to” reopen the negotiations. He estimated working out a new deal and getting it approved by EU leaders and British lawmakers “would need six or eight weeks.”
However, Coveney says Ireland is ready to study alternatives to a post-Brexit “backstop” aimed at avoiding a new border between the EU’s Ireland and U.K.’s Northern Ireland.
He noted the importance of keeping the peace on an “island that has a tragic and violent history.”  The U.K.’s new prime minister, Boris Johnson, opposes the backstop provisions in his predecessor’s deal, which failed to gain parliamentary approval.  Coveney said any alternative Irish border arrangements “have got to do the same job as the backstop.”