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The indications follow a meeting between MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai and diplomats on Monday in which he is alleged to have made a “salient” push for extension of sanctions ahead of elections later this year.
Last week, Foreign Affairs Ministry officials met members of the EU delegation in Zimbabwe to discuss the matter and were told that the illegal embargo would remain in place.
Yesterday, Zanu-PF national chairman Cde Simon Khaya Moyo also met US Embassy officials and impressed on them the need to immediately lift the widely discredited sanctions.
All this comes against the backdrop of revelations by whistle-blower website WikiLeaks that the EU is divided over the legality of the sanctions regime.
The sanctions debate has also spilled into Parliament with the Senate yesterday debating the matter extensively in the wake of a motion moved by Senator Aguy Georgias calling for a class action against the EU.
The EU is expected to extend the embargo that it put in place ahead of the 2002 Presidential elections won by President Mugabe.
Foreign Affairs officials confirmed they met EU personnel in a “dead-end” meeting in which the latter indicated Zimbabwe should not expect any relief from the sanctions.
Senior Government officials yesterday said the EU was likely to extend the embargo.
“We should not expect much from the EU,” said a Foreign Affairs Ministry official.
MDC-T leader Mr Tsvangirai is understood to have told Western diplomats in Harare on Monday that Zanu-PF was perpetrating violence against indigenous people and foreigners as well.
This, sources said, was designed to ensure EU ministers extend sanctions on Zimbabwe.
In a meeting with US political and economic affairs chief in Zimbabwe Mr Michael Gonzales yesterday, Zanu-PF’s national chairman Cde Khaya Moyo explained that MDC-T was trying to foment chaos in Harare so as to incite the West into perpetuating its hard line stance on Zimbabwe.
“All the disturbances we hear (about), we believe are being stage-managed because the EU is meeting next week to consider renewal of sanctions.
“The shops that were destroyed at Gulf Complex belong to Zanu-PF people and how can Zanu-PF turn against its people?” he asked.
Police have said their investigations point to MDC-T’s hand in the violence. This follows intimations by MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai that violence, as has been witnessed in Tunisia and Egypt, is acceptable in Zimbabwe.
Interestingly, Mr Tsvangirai addressed Western diplomats soon after the looting of Gulf Complex.
He told them, “For the record, and for the avoidance of doubt, the MDC part of the inclusive Government wishes to dissociate itself from the actions of these lawless elements.”
Meanwhile, another batch of confidential US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks reveals that several EU members have questioned the legality of sanctions on Zimbabwe.
The three dispatches released at the weekend indicated that Germany, Greece, Spain and Italy viewed the sanctions as largely illegal while Britain pushed for their imposition without requisite United Nations resolutions.
One of the cables said “there has been some opposition to additional sanctions amongst EU partners”.
“Germany continues to question the legality of some of the instruments, and some of the Southern European states (like Greece, Spain, and Italy) have their ‘usual existential problems with sanctions’.”
Another cable also showed that in 2009 France called for the removal of the sanctions.
A 2005 study by the EU itself found that the bloc had violated the Cotonou Partnership Agreement under which the sanctions were imposed.
The study admits that the sanctions were put in place to try and influence the 2002 Presidential elections and have been maintained ever since, largely at Britain’s behest.
Britain and the US have also tried to get the illegal sanctions endorsed by the United Nations, but this attempt in 2008 fell flat after Russia, China, South Africa and other countries rejected the bid.
According to one of the leaked cables, the UK underestimated China and the then British Minister for Africa, Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, thought the Asian giant would vote against Zimbabwe or abstain from the UN Security Council vote.
He was quoted saying: “China will likely do the right thing because it does not want another human rights fight on its hands before theOlympics.”
China hosted the 2008 Olympics.
Meanwhile, non-constituency Senator Aguy Georgias’ motion calling for the inclusive Government to institute a class action against the EU to have sanctions removed generated heated debate in the Upper Chamber yesterday.
Zanu-PF Senators supported the motion arguing that the embargo was hurting ordinary persons.
MDC-T legislators claimed the sanctions were targeted.
This is despite another WikiLeak revelation last week in which the EU admitted sanctions are not targeted and tried to mask their impact on all Zimbabweans by using “creative” propaganda.
In his motion, Cde Georgias implored the Senate to adopt the motion so that a class action could be instituted at the European Court of Justice Court of First Instance.
He called for mobilisation of international support against the sanctions.
The Public Works Deputy Minister said he had held discussions with Prime Minister Tsvangirai and Deputy PM Arthur Mutambara and they had promised to look into the issue.
“It is my deepest concern, in the true spirit of the inclusive Government, which enjoins us to a common desire of working together, that we may put our differences aside for a common goal to rid our nation of this stigma, called sanctions,” said Cde Georgias.
He said it was critical to support the motion as the three main political parties had committed themselves to fight the embargo as was agreed in the GPA.