Africa U.S. Daily Press Briefing

Africa U.S. Daily Press Briefing

Sean McCormack, Spokesman

Washington, DC

October 14, 2008

INDEX:

ZIMBABWE
Mugabe Oversteps Boundaries of Power-sharing Agreement
U.S. Hopes for Implementation of Power-sharing Agreement
Implementation Solution Must be Acceptable to Both Sides

TRANSCRIPT:

10:35 a.m. EDT

MR. MCCORMACK: Good morning, everybody. Very energetic crowd –

Yeah, Sylvie.

QUESTION: In Zimbabwe –

MR. MCCORMACK: Zimbabwe –

QUESTION: – the talks started again and the ex-President Mbeki is there to help find an agreement. Do you think it’s – there is hope that –

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, what we hope is that you get back to implementation of the agreement that was struck between the MDC and President Mugabe in terms of power-sharing. President Mugabe apparently overstepped the bounds of that agreement in claiming several ministries that were not part of the power-sharing agreement that was brokered. So what we would like to see is the implementation of that original agreement get back on track. And of course, any implementation solution has to be one that is acceptable through the MDC and Mr. Tsvangirai.

QUESTION: And do you trust Mr. Mugabe to implement it?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, we’ll see. That was always – that’s always been the open question. And I think if you remember back to when this first – there was an announcement about the agreement being brokered that we welcomed the agreement, but we also held out final judgment until it was actually implemented. In this case, the devil is in the details and the devil is in the details of the implementation of it. We now see a real bump in the road in terms of the implementation, and we’ll see how that is resolved.

QUESTION: Thank you.

ENDS

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