Iraq's prime minister Saturday urged the country's myriad tribes to join his national reconciliation plan to stamp out sectarian strife. «Brothers, the national reconciliation is a wide door, open to all those who want to take part in rebuilding the country,» Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said in a speech to hundreds of tribal leaders at a national unity conference. It is the first of four conferences planned across Iraq by the new national reconciliation committee, which al-Maliki set up last month to unify country's major Muslim sects, the Shiite and Sunnis. «Liberating the country from any foreign existence and controlling the enemies can't be achieved without a real national unity among Iraqis and this is the role for our tribes,» said al-Maliki. «These tribes have to play a significant role in fighting terrorists, saboteurs and infiltrators,» he told the leaders, according to a report of the Associated Press. «Yes to unity, yes to Iraq,» a few tribal chiefs chanted in between the speeches. «We are all brothers in this country,» they shouted. «Iraq, at this stage, needs all its sons. There is no difference among Kurds, Arabs and Turkomen, Muslims or Christians, Sunnis or Shiites,» al-Maliki said. «That doesn't mean that we don't have different opinions, but we have to rely on dialogue not weapons,» he said. Dr. Akram al-Hakim, the minister for national dialogue, said all Iraqi politicians of different backgrounds must make concessions to each other to achieve unity. «But at the same time, I say that such concessions should not violate our national and constitutional principles,» he said. «The reconciliation cannot be achieved by appeasing one group and discriminating against another."
