UNITED NATIONS (Sapa-AP) - Zimbabwe's U.N. ambassador chafed Monday at the push by the U.N. Security Council's three veto-wielding Western powers to impose sanctions on his nation.
He suggested a power-sharing deal or other measures could head off efforts by the U.S., Britain and France to persuade the 15-nation council to approve sanctions, despite opposition from the other two veto-wielding members, China and Russia, and from South Africa.
"I don't think that other members of the Security Council are convinced that our situation is a threat to international peace and security," Zimbabwean U.N. Ambassador Boniface Chidyausiku said in an interview with The Associated Press. "We see the whole approach to sanctions as a weapon to try and effect a regime change in Zimbabwe."
Chidyausiku indicated that President Robert Mugabe, who sought support for his government at a African Union summit in Egypt on Monday, might try to give some kind of role in government to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who cited politically motivated violence and intimidation in his decision to withdraw and make last Friday's vote a one-man race.
"I'm sure the president will be in a position to come up with a solution where he can accommodate," Chidyausiki said.
The U.S. proposal for a legally binding sanctions resolution includes an arms embargo on Zimbabwe and a call to ban travel and freeze assets of those who supported the election violence.
"We have to respond, not only because Zimbabwe is important, and not only because what happens there affects the region but also the credibility of the council is at stake," U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, the president of the council in June, told reporters. "We spoke loudly and clearly and made demands that were ignored."
Twice already the council has condemned Zimbabwe's June 27 election as illegitimate because of widespread reports of violence and intimidation in the runup to the vote. Mugabe was inaugurated to a sixth term on Sunday.
Britain's U.N. Ambassador John Sawers said his nation supports "increasing the pressure on those in Zimbabwe who are responsible for subverting the elections and for creating a climate whereby the will of the Zimbabwean people was discarded."
Chidyausiku said, however, that any U.N.-approved sanctions would only add to the "very debilitating effect" that similar measures already imposed by the U.S., European Union and Australia have already had on Zimbabwe's economy.
