Mugabe rallies behind his cornered friend, Gaddafi

“There is no reneging on the resolution anymore, it’s there, its a mistake we made…we should have never given the West (the go ahead) knowing theyre bloody vampires of the past all this room to go for our people in Africa and try to displace a regime, Mugabe said after a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier, Wang Qoshan.

Mugabe accused the West of double standards, saying they were only interested in Libyas oil. He said the West was interpreting the UN resolution to mean permission to bombard any places of their own choice in Libya.

But the United Nations had the support of the Arab League when it passed a resolution to impose a no-fly zone over Libya, after Gaddafi forces began re-taking rebel held towns, vowing to go door-to-door in search of the so-called traitors. Although Mugabe is attacking the West, a crucial point is that it was Gaddafis peers, the Arab League, who called for the intervention.

Debate has now shifted to whether the no-fly mandate should be extended from merely protecting civilians, to including the removal of Gaddafi. Such talk has worried dictators in many countries.

There is now a growing chorus of voices suggesting the MDC seek United Nations help in resolving the political crisis in Zimbabwe, rather than relying on SADC and the African Union (AU). Unlike the Arab league SADC has bent over backwards for Mugabe and accommodated his repressive regime.

But several UN resolutions on Zimbabwe by the UN have been blocked by a combination of South Africa and China in the past, and despite analysts hope that the UN is the most potent organization to deal with Mugabe, its almost certain South Africa would continue to block any action or resolutions.