On Monday, the White House released a statement from US President Joe Biden saying that the national emergency declared in a US executive order of 2003 "with respect to the actions and policies of certain members of the Government of Zimbabwe and other persons to undermine Zimbabwe’s democratic processes or institutions" has been terminated.
"Today, Zimbabwe cannot be expected to thank or be grateful to President Biden and the US for announcing palliative measures towards finally rescinding an illegality and an outrage ... Further, Zimbabwe takes great exception for gratuitous slander, and defamatory remarks by officials of the Biden Administration against the sanctioned Zimbabwean leadership and its nationals," the Zimbabwean Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services said on X on Wednesday.
The release said Zimbabwe has been under "formal illegal sanctions" of the US since 2001. By "equally illegal" executive orders, the US government has been seeking "to make laws and punitive policies for a sovereign African State with which it shares neither common geography nor history, and against which it has no defensible legal case."
The Zimbabwean government also "extends solidarity to all people and Nations similarly affected by such illegal sanctions."
"As a government leading a country with pretensions to global leadership, the Biden Administration must lead by example in showing the rest of the world how to act in accord with international law, rather than acting arbitrarily, both at bilateral and global levels," the release said.
US National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said on Monday that the US has imposed new sanctions against some of the most powerful persons, including Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, and companies in Zimbabwe for their alleged engagement in corruption and human rights abuses.
In 2003, the US sanctioned top government officials of Zimbabwe, accusing them of "undermining democracy" in the country.