EU ambassadors struck an agreement ”in principle” Wednesday to extend sanctions against Zimbabwe, but the deal still has to be finalised at a new meeting next week, diplomats said.
The EU’s Greek presidency will in the meantime seek commitments from African countries that Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe will not attend an EU-Africa summit in Lisbon in April, said the sources.
The accord however paved the way for Mugabe to travel to Paris later this month for a Franco-African summit. ”There was a green light from all member states. Nobody opposed it outright,” said one diplomat.
The European Union imposed a 12-month visa ban on Zimbabwe’s leadership last February, as violence flared in the run-up to a presidential poll widely condemned as rigged.
The renewal of the sanctions has been blocked on the question of waivers from the travel ban on Mugabe and 71 senior Zimbabwean officials. Two previous attempts have failed to resolve the row. Diplomats said on Wednesday that the ambassadors agreed to renew the sanctions against Zimbabwe, and also struck an accord on the terms of waivers.
But the Lisbon summit, scheduled for April 5, remains the sticking point. Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark are fiercely opposed to Mugabe being allowed to attend the April gathering.
”Contacts are continuing” to find a compromise, which could involve Zimbabwe being represented by its foreign minister, Stan Mudenge, a diplomat said.
”The presidency needs a little bit more time. We are not far from an accord,” he said.
France has apparently persuaded its EU partners to allow Mugabe to attend a Franco-African summit in Paris on February 20-21.
Even Britain, which is the EU’s fiercest critic of Mugabe’s regime in its former colony, seems to have come round to accepting that Mugabe can travel to Paris.
”If the price of keeping the travel ban in place after February 18 is Mugabe being allowed to visit the Franco-African summit then that’s something we have to consider,” said the British diplomat.
The diplomat insisted that Mugabe’s attendance at the Lisbon meeting in April would be more problematic. ”As far as were are concerned Mugabe is not welcome in the EU,” he said.
Diplomats said that, if no promise were given that Mugabe would not attend the Lisbon meeting, the summit would be delayed.
Following summit talks on Tuesday with British Prime Minister Tony Blair Chirac defended his invitation to the Zimbabwean leader. ”We do not want to prove anything and we don’t want to act aggressively toward anyone,” Chirac told a joint press conference. ”We decided we needed to invite all the presidents, and we of course launched discussions with Brussels that are ongoing, to see what our final decision will be,” the French leader added.
Britain was furious about the French invitation, although Paris said London was fully aware of the arrangement. – Sapa-AFP