United States president Barack Obama has extended sanctions against Robert Mugabe and Zimbabwe for another year.
Zimbabwe’s government has criticized the embargoes now in place for over a decade as affecting ordinary Zimbabweans.
Obama’s government says it has decided to extend the sunction claiming that President Mugabe was a threat to US foreign policy.
In a notice titled “Continuation of the national emergency with respect to Zimbabwe” published by the White House on March 03, US president Barrack Obama, claimed that the actions of the Government of Zimbabwe “contributed to deliberate breakdown of political and economic instability in the southern African region”.
“The actions and policies of these persons continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of the United States,” said Mr Obama.
“For this reason, the national emergency declared on March 6, 2003, and the measures adopted on that date, on November 22, 2005, and on July 25, 2008, to deal with that emergency, must continue in effect beyond March 6, 2015.
Mugabe’s Zanu PF party has however condemned what it calls Washington’s “arrogance” saying Obama’s government was intent on punishing Mugabe for alleged rights abuses and electoral fraud, charges the 91-year-old leader denies.
