UNITED NATIONS—The United States has already completed a draft of a U.N. Security Council sanctions resolution to punish some members of Zimbabwe's government over last week's election, Britain's U.N. envoy said Monday.
"Our United States colleagues have done a first draft which is being discussed over the next couple of days," British Ambassador John Sawers told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of the Security Council.
"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.
The U.S. State Department has said that the Security Council will formally discuss sanctions against Zimbabwean officials Wednesday.
The 15-nation council is deeply divided on the issue of Zimbabwe and council diplomats say that South Africa, which opposes the idea of sanctions against President Robert Mugabe's government, has the backing of two powerful veto-wielding council members—Russia and China.
Elected Security Council members Indonesia and Vietnam, which usually prefer to avoid intervening in what they see as other countries' internal affairs, also appear to be supporting the South Africans, diplomats say.
Mugabe went to an African Union summit in Egypt Monday after being re-elected in a one-candidate election that was condemned by regional monitors and many world leaders.
Sawers acknowledged it was not clear if the Western members of the Security Council would be able to get a sanctions resolution through the council, but said they would try.
"I hope that there will be a climate whereby sanctions can be adopted by the United Nations as well," he said. "That's what we'll be working for."
The council will be looking to see what comes out of the AU summit, Sawers said, adding that Britain would lobby the European Union to tighten its sanctions against Zimbabwe.
"We already have substantial sanctions in the European Union and we the UK are looking to strengthen those over the period ahead," Sawers said.
Council diplomats have said any sanctions would most likely take the form of travel bans and asset freezes for members of Zimbabwe's government. Sawers said they would not want to punish the already-suffering people of Zimbabwe.
Feeds