Brexit was a “clinker” that harmed the peace process in Northern Ireland, Bill Clinton has said.
The former US president said finding a political solution to the UK’s departure from the European Union has “taken some doing”.
However, after holding talks with DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson in Belfast, Clinton said he was confident that power-sharing at Stormont between the party and Sinn Fein will return soon.
Clinton has been in Northern Ireland this week to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement that he helped to broker along with Tony Blair as well as former Irish Toaiseach Bertie Ahern.
However, Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal, which created a customs border in the Irish Sea, has caused a collapse of the government at Stormont.
Despite Rishi Sunak’s re-working the deal by agreeing the Windsor Framework, the DUP are still refusing to go back into government with Sinn Fein.
Speaking to BBC Ulster, Clinton said: “Brexit threw a clinker in there.
“I think that finding a political solution to that has taken some doing and I think they’re pretty close with this Windsor agreement. I expect that in the not too distant future the barriers to getting the government up again will be removed.
“I think everybody knows economically, politically, socially they’d be worse off if they packed it in over the current level of disagreement.”
Asked about his talks with Jeffrey Donaldson, the former president said: “I left that meeting more optimistic than I entered it.”