Remove Sanctions Before I Concede, Mugabe says

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has ruled out making any concessions to the demands made by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) until all Western sanctions are removed.

Mugabe was referring to negotiations with his coalition partner in Zimbabwe’s unity government, which has been affected by disagreement between the two sides over the sharing of key cabinet posts, President Mugabe's unilateral appointment of the country’s attorney-general and central bank governor, and his refusal to swear in the MDC’s Roy Bennett as a deputy minister.

The ongoing negotiations were jump started by South African leader Jacob Zuma’s mediation visit last week. [PE]