Former British PM Tony Blair has had a dramatic U-turn and now wants to help Zimbabwe end economic sanctions, ED revealed.
President Mnangagwa said he had a ‘frank’ meeting with Blair recently where the ex-PM agreed to lobby the UK government to scrap the sanctions that Blair himself helped impose while he was in power.
ED said: When I met with Blair, I told him you had an altercation with Mr Mugabe . . . do you want to do the same with me, and he said ‘no’. So I asked him to resolve the issue before he dies so he is engaging his colleagues in his country to have the issue resolved,” said President Mnangagwa.
Blair and Bush had teamed up to punish Harare after Zimbabwe’s land reform program. Blair backed the US invasion of Iraq in return for Bush’s support on Zimbabwe sanctions.
But now Blair – who was famously told by late former President Robert Mugabe to “keep his England and let me keep my Zimbabwe” – has changed tune. ED said: “Blair is now engaging his colleagues to resolve the issues.”
Zimbabwe’s economy is growing despite sanctions, with agriculture and mining booming, creating thousands of jobs, said ED.
He warned the US – Zimbabwe’s last sanctions holdout – not to treat his country as “second class citizens”.
Zanu PF VP Constantino Chiwenga praised ED for developmental projects saying he “deserves another term”.
So it seems Blair has made a massive U-turn on Zimbabwe. But will the UK government now follow suit and help end the economic sanctions that have crippled the country for so long?
