Thread by @VusiNyamazana

*US Must Shake Itself from Policy Dilemma on Zimbabwe Sanctions Adventurism*

1. Only 30% of imposed sanctions end with complete or partial goal attainment. A POLICY DILEMMA for US is that regime change & land reversal in 🇿🇼has not yielded 21 yrs later. US policy makers simply

2. need to capitulate, & not hold onto measures whose costs exceed the benefits derived from them - SANCTIONS FATIGUE

Washington imposed #ZIDERA without a clear road-map for its eventual removal - precise knowledge about how, when, & why sanctions end was not thought of.

3. US sanctions are marked by ambiguity in imposition, enforcement & termination. They failed to articulate clear & ideally attainable benchmarks, & thats why 🇿🇼compliance has been spotty at best. Sanctions are not a major factor in 🇿🇼state decisions towards good governance

4. US reputation may take a knock if they lift their failed measures, but keeping them will disadvantage US industries. Increasing presence of China & Russia in 🇿🇼presents a potential long-term existential threat to US-the GREAT DYKE which they described in the most expressive..

5. language as part of 'The Persian Gulf of Strategic Minerals of our earth' is fast going into Chinese & Russian hands!!!

By lifting the measures US will not incur any audience or political costs at home because its people do not view 🇿🇼as a 'threat to US national security'.

6. US will lose respect completely if it does not change course. The #EU has been a 'responsive sanctioner' that gradually reduced the no. of officials & C/o's from the blacklist due to its own commercial interests. #Belgium pushed for the removal of diamond C/o's from the...

7. blacklists due to its own commercial interests, & the #Netherlands was in favour of rewarding modest political reforms in 🇿🇼

US has exhibited policy inconsistency towards 🇿🇼 & Africa at large. Around May 2021, its @USEmbZim Ambassador Brian Nichols & @CommerceGov launched..

8. the first-ever official Trade Mission to 🇿🇼 which supported US C/o's pursuing opportunities in 🇿🇼 Nineteen months later, the same US excludes Pres @edmnangagwa from the #USAfricaSummit as it did Pres Mugabe in 2014. On the eve of the Summit, US sanctions 4 people & designate

9. two C/o's, quashing expectations to repair relations. The Summit becomes pointless when US fails to normalize bi-lateral relations with 🇿🇼 & other blacklisted African states.

The pragmatic thing for US to do is focus on what's vital - protecting & promoting its interests,

10. influence, & positive reputation. It's ostracization of 🇿🇼 has uncertain but predictable disastrous consequences for 'US Strategy Towards Sub-Saharan Africa', as evidenced by calls at the Summit by AU Chairperson Mack Sally, Pres of Senegal, & @SADC_News Leaders, for the...

11. lifting of sanctions against 🇿🇼

@SecBlinken @ShavaHon @MoFA_ZW @Tinoedzazvimwe1 @Mhofela_mhofu @KMutisi @StateDept @AfricaMediaHub @TheAfricaReport @lilomatic @Matinyarare