BILL Clinton has said he is "optimistic" that power sharing at Stormont can be restored after the former US president held a meeting with DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson.
Mr Clinton is in Belfast to attend the Agreement 25 conference at Queen's University, to mark the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and also paid a visit to Derry on Tuesday, where he first visited in 1995 as the first US president to visit the north.
His wife and former US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, is also attending the event at the university, of which she became chancellor in 2021.
In Belfast on Monday, Mr Clinton met with Jeffrey Donaldson, where he discussed the ongoing Stormont stalemate resulting from the DUP's opposition to the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The DUP has said it will not return to Stormont until its issues with the Irish Sea border are resolved, and have said the UK and EU's recent Windsor Framework deal does not address its concerns.
Speaking with the BBC following Tuesday's meeting, Mr Clinton refused to divulge details of his conversation with the DUP leader, but hinted that he was hopeful of future progress for power-sharing.
"I left that meeting more optimistic than I entered it," the former president said.
"But I don't think I should talk about what we talked about because I'm not in government for the United States, or for Northern Ireland, or the Irish Republic, or the UK."
He added: "I'm here as a friend of the peace process and a friend of hope."
Mr Donaldson described the conversation as a "useful exchange" where he "underscored our commitment to restoring the NI Assembly on a basis that unionists as well as nationalists can support".
The DUP leader added: "Northern Ireland is a divided society. We must get the foundations right. Quick fixes without solid foundations will do a disservice to those trying to make the institutions work.
"Progress is only made in Northern Ireland on the basis of consensus. Unionists and Nationalists agreeing a way forward."
