Sirte — PRESIDENT Mugabe yesterday met United States Under-Secretary of State for African Affairs Mr Johnnie Carson and Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo on the sidelines of the 13th Ordinary Session of the African Union General Assembly here.
The meeting with Mr Carson was the first time in several years that a senior member of the US administration has met President Mugabe.
Sources who attended the meeting said the President had a frank discussion with Mr Carson who requested the meeting, and was briefed on the process that led to the formation of the inclusive Government, its current state and the working relations between the three parties involved.
President Mugabe, the sources said, told Mr Carson that the Government was working well.
The meeting comes in the wake of recent attempts by some in the West to trash the inclusive Government by claiming that it was failing to meet set "benchmarks" even though all the parties that signed the Global Political Agreement have given the arrangement a clean bill of health and pledged their commitment to resolving any problems arising from the implementation of the agreement among themselves.
During Prime Minister Tsvangirai's recent tour of Western capitals, the "benchmarks" were cited as an excuse to maintain the illegal sanctions regime on Zimbabwe and to deny the country development support.
Mr Carson, a career African-American diplomat, served as US ambassador to Zimbabwe between 1995 and 1997, and ended his tenure just before the bilateral dispute over land with Britain flared up.
There were no details of the President's meeting with his Equatorial Guinea counterpart.
Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea enjoy cordial relations and Zimbabwe's security forces were instrumental in apprehending a planeload of mercenaries who were on their way to Malabo, the E. Guinea capital, to try to unseat Mr Nguema's government.
The summit, being held under the theme "Investing in Agriculture for Economic Growth and Food Security", enters its third and final day today with the leaders expected to come up with a common position on agriculture and a solid framework for food security.
AU Commissioner for Agricultural Develop-ment Ms Rhoda Peace has stressed the need to integrate the market for agricultural produce on the continent in light of unfair agricultural practices employed by Western nations that see African farmers failing to compete with their Western counterparts on the international market.
She also urged the leaders to work to convert the continent's annual US$33 billion food importation bill into investment in agriculture.
The leaders are also expected to pronounce themselves firmly on the fragile peace and security situation plaguing various African countries, among them Madagascar, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone and Somalia. Also expected in the final communiqué is a strong African rebuke of the ICC arrest warrant issued against Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, who is in attendance here.
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The Minister of Promises and Assurances has confirmed that uncle bob really, really and truly promises he wont dip his hand into the cashbox again, honestly. If he does, the minister is reported to say that he promises to give up all of his ill gotten gains to the Sisters of Charity, a Hong Kong registered organization. The Sisters address appears to be similar to that of a condo purchased by bob's close relative; we were assured that this was a mere coincidence.
Thanks to the mediation of Tsvangirai, Criminal Mugabe's plea to rub shoulders with the Gringos has materialised.
Will ZANU-PF appreciate Tsvangirai's mediation? I doubt it.
Prem, appreciation from Zanu-pf...!! I do not think so.
Oh dear!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! laughable stuff. Tsvangirai's mediation?????? I think you missed this one. Obama had been ill advised on his diplomatic blunders during Tsvangirai's visit to the US. Hillary Clinton showed such diplomatic prowess and maturity by welcoming Mzembi , yet Obama instead did the opposite. Obama was later informed of this mistake if the US was to be seen to be advancing the GNU mandate. Hillary made this clear on the postmortem meeting they had at the oval office. Carson requested this meeting with His Excellency and not the other way round'. Carson stressed to Obama at the oval office that President Mugabe was a larger part of the solution than otherwise which, of course Tsvangirai overtly spelt out during his tour. Carson was there to mend fences. To suggest that the President got this opportunity because Tsvangirai mediated is nonsensical and utter rubbish.
If I understood the article well, Carson requested for the meeting. Certainly, there is nothing to thank Tsvangirai for because if Carson himself wanted to see President Mugabe that ultimately means that the African freedom fighter never went begging to see a representative of the imperialist tormentors of the African people, so grow up you pathetic liar,Prem the great liar on this thread,that said and hold,s on to the lie that there was never any sanctions placed on the Zimbabwean people,the grand deceiver on this thread,the most pathetic piece propagandist.Ultimately, we conclude that you either grow up ,go find something else to do or simply go hang for your habit of twisting facts to please your masters in the west.
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