Iraq's vice president on Saturday called on insurgents to join the political process and take part in the government's national reconciliation plan before it's too late. In a meeting with community leaders from Baghdad's predominantly Sunni Arab Azamiyah district, Tariq al-Hashimi said Iraqis still have time to avoid sectarian conflict «as the rules of the game have been changed and problems can't be solved only by weapons.» «This is a call for the Iraqi resistance to think thoughtfully and sit around the negotiating table before it's too late,» al-Hashimi told about 100 people at the Islamic University in Azamiyah. «Differences will devastate Iraq and this division is not to our benefit.» Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki last month launched a 24-point reconciliation plan which he hopes will bridge the religious, ethnic and political divisions that have been tearing Iraq apart since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, according to a report of the Associated Press.
