Sir Tony Blair has warned Joe Biden against trying to pressurise the DUP intro restoring power sharing at Stormont.
Intervening ahead of the US President's arrival in Northern Ireland this evening, the former Prime Minister said that Biden risked undermining his own position if he pushed too hard.
The DUP effectively brought down the devolved Government in Northern Ireland last year in a row over Brexit.
Biden is expected to meet members of Stormont’s main political parties as part of a visit he said will underscore his nation’s “commitment to preserving peace and encouraging prosperity” in Northern Ireland.
Joe Biden will land in Northern Ireland tonight
ReutersBlair said that while Biden's visit to Northern Ireland to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement was "significant", he needed to remember to act "with care and with sensitivity".
He said: "Americans can play a real role but it’s something that you need to do carefully because there is a difference between influencing and pressurising."
"I think if we do it in the right way, the involvement of the American President is positive," he told BBC Radio 4.
"By the right way I mean, as I say, at the right moment and in the right place because if people feel they are being, and unionism especially, one thing I learnt about the unionists is if you try and pressurise them to do something that they are fundamentally in disagreement with, it is usually futile pressure, even if it comes from the US so you have just got to use that influence carefully."
The former Prime Minister said the influence of Biden could be a 'positive'
PA
Biden will be met off Air Force One tonight by Rishi Sunak and will hold formal talks with the Prime Minister tomorrow before his meeting with Northern Ireland’s main political parties.
He will then give an address at Ulster University’s new £350million Belfast campus.
The American President will also travel to the Republic of Ireland during his visit.
He will take part in a tree-planting ceremony and meet with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
Blair said that the presence of the US had previously been a huge help for the Northern Ireland peace process.
He said: "I don’t know what the up-to-date situation is with President Biden and our Prime Minister now, but for me at that time and actually also afterwards with President Bush who came to Northern Ireland and was actually extremely helpful at a crucial moment in the peace process.
"The Americans can play a real role but it’s something that you need to do carefully because there’s a difference between influencing and pressurising and the one tends to be positive and the other can be negative."
