SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe
The United States government has insisted that targeted restrictive sanctions against the Robert Mugabe regime will remain in place, in the wake of the disputed and “seriously flawed” July 31st election.
SADC leaders on Sunday urged Western nations to drop all sanctions against Zimbabwe because of the polls, which saw Mugabe being re-elected as Zimbabwe’s President.
But US state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the poll “did not represent a credible expression of the will of the Zimbabwean people”.
Speaking during a press briefing on Monday, Psaki said:
“The United States stands by our assessment that these elections, while relatively peaceful, did not represent a credible expression of the will of the Zimbabwean people due to serious flaws throughout the electoral process, as highlighted by the regional and domestic monitors. So our position, of course, is not the same.”
Psaki added that a change will occur “only in a context of credible, transparent, peaceful reforms that reflect the will of the Zimbabwean people.”
“That is how we make our decisions and the prism we, of course, make them through. Of course, we are always concerned about the suffering of any people, certainly the people of Zimbabwe, but that’s how we make our decisions. And if those changes are made, then we’ll certainly conduct a review,” Paski said.
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