 To some extent, these critics of Major's policy were later vindicated when, in an article published in 2011, the then-Defence Secretary Malcolm Rifkind accepted that the arms embargo was a "serious mistake" by the UN.Major opened talks with the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) upon taking office.When he declared to the House of Commons in November 1993 that "to sit down and talk with Mr Adams and the Provisional IRA ... would turn my stomach", Sinn Féin gave the media an outline of the secret talks indeed held regularly since that February.