The United States has completed a first draft resolution proposing sanctions on Zimbabwe over Friday's presidential run-off election, Britain's UN ambassador John Sawers said on Monday.
British Ambassador to UN John Sawers enters the Friendship Hall to meet Sudanese officials in Khartoum June 4, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters, File Photo)
"Our United States colleagues have drafted a first draft of a sanctions resolution which is being discussed over the next couple of days," Sawers told reporters on the sidelines of a Security Council meeting.
"We certainly support increasing the pressure on those in Zimbabwe who are responsible for subverting the elections and for creating a climate whereby the will of the Zimbabwean people was discarded as it was in Friday's election," he said.
Sawers said the council will wait to see what comes out of the African Union (AU) leaders summit on Monday and Tuesday.
The next move by the council will depend in part on the outcomes of the AU summit and in part on "what is possible to achieve here in the United Nations," he said.
Noting the "substantial sanctions" already imposed by the European Union, Sawers said that Britain will try to push for toughening those measures.
"I hope there will be a climate whereby sanctions can be adopted through the United Nations as well, that's what we would be working for," he said.
When asked about the content of the sanctions, Sawers said the focus will be on individuals, but not the Zimbabwean people in general.
In a presidential statement adopted last Monday, the 15-member council condemned the "campaign of violence" ahead of the presidential run-off in Zimbabwe.
"The Security Council regrets that the campaign of violence and the restrictions on the political opposition have made it impossible for a free and fair election to take place on 27 June," the statement said.
Later on Friday, the council again issued a statement, expressing "regret" over the holding of the run-off election despite international calls for postponement.
(Xinhua News Agency July 1, 2008)
