Thabo Mbeki claims UK asked hi

Thabo Mbeki claims UK asked him to help in plot to invade Zimbabwe

South Africa’s former president says he was put under pressure to cooperate in a military invasion of Zimbabwe by the last Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair, who planned to topple Robert Mugabe by force.

Thabo Mbeki claims UK asked hi
Blair and Mbeki
Thabo Mbeki and Tony Blair at the G8 Summit in 2007

THABO MBEKI has revealed that the previous British Labour government aimed to remove Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe from power using military intervention.

He claims that former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair appealed to South Africa to help, but Mbeki’s government refused.

“There is a retired chief of the British Armed Forces who said he had to withstand pressure from then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair, who was saying to the chief of the British Armed Forces: “You must work out a military plan so that we can physically remove Robert Mugabe””, he said in an interview with al-Jazeera.

“We knew that, because we had come under the same pressure, that we needed to cooperate in some scheme- it was a regime change scheme- even to the point of using military force, and we were saying “No.””

Lord Charles Guthrie, who was Chief of the Defence Staff and Britain’s most senior solider throughout Blair’s first government, was quoted in 2007 in some sections of the British media as saying that “people were always trying to get me to look at” ending Mugabe and the Zanu-PF’s reign by force.

Guthrie evidently declined to take any proposals seriously, stating at the time that his advice was: “Hold hard, you’ll make it worse.”

Rejected interference on principle

Mbeki explained that he rejected attempts by the West to interfere in the affairs of African nations on principle.

“You are coming from London, you don’t like Robert Mugabe for whatever reason – people in London don’t like him – and we are going to remove him and we are going to put someone else in his place? Why does it become British responsibility to decide who leads the people of Zimbabwe?” asked Mbeki.

“We were saying no. Let Zimbabweans sit down. Let them agree what they do with their country. Our task is to make sure we stay with them. We work with them.”

Negotiations

The former South African president told how he believes global conflicts such as those in Zimbabwe and Syria can only ever be resolved through negotiated settlements, rather than heavy-handed regime changes.

Throughout Mbeki’s presidency, South Africa and Britain disagreed about how best to handle Mugabe. “The problem was, we were speaking from different positions,” he revealed.

“There were other people saying: “There are political problems, economic problems- the best way to solve them is regime change. Mugabe must go.” But we said: “Mugabe is part of the solution to this problem.””

The South African government helped to broker the now defunct power-sharing agreement between Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in 2008.

Plots

In 2001 and 2002, Mugabe repeatedly accused Britain of plotting to overthrow him and recolonize Zimbabwe. These claims came after Blair condemned Mugabe’s regime following the increased violence and rise of hyperinflation in the country during this period.

However, on a visit to South Africa in 2007, despite defending his interventionist policy, Blair admitted that he welcomed Mbeki’s diplomacy strategy.

Speaking at a press conference at the time he declared: “The solution is an African solution for Zimbabwe,” adding that Britain would “put [it’s] efforts behind the process which President Mbeki has laid out.”

In response to Mbeki’s recent claims, a spokesman for Blair said: “Tony Blair has long believed that Zimbabwe would be much better off without Robert Mugabe and always argued for a tougher stance against him, but he never asked anyone to plan or take part in any such military intervention.”

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