By Xinhua,
Washington : US President George W. Bush Tuesday said his administration was considering sanctions against the people associated with the regime of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.
“These sanctions were not against the people of Zimbabwe. These were against the people that, you know, in the Mugabe regime that made the decisions it made,” Bush told a press conference here without elaborating details of the possible sanctions.
Bush’s comments on Zimbabwe came after UN Security Council failed last week to reach an agreement to impose sanctions against the southern African country.
Russia and China vetoed a US-drafted resolution in the UN Security Council Friday that called for imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe over the country’s presidential run-off election in late June.
The failed text calls for a travel ban and an assets freeze on President Robert Mugabe and his top officials, as well as an arms embargo.
Mugabe was sworn in president for another five years early this month following a run-off presidential election he alone contested. Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai boycotted the election over attacks on his supporters.
The Bush administration has been threatening to act unilaterally against Mugabe and his government following his re-election in the vote denounced by opposition parties and termed as illegal by the international community.
“We don’t believe that the Mugabe regime is a legitimate government … because they ran a sham election,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said last month.