The ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) has voiced strong criticism against Washington, labeling the act of lifting certain economic restrictions on Zimbabwe while simultaneously imposing new sanctions on 11 Zimbabwean officials, including President Emmerson Mnangagwa, as the epitome of double standards.
"The Americans by the fact that they claim to remove sanctions whilst they are infusing other sanctions, including the Magnitsky sanctions on the other hand, is the biggest sign of insincerity and double standards one can ever do," Farai Muroiwa Marapira, ZANU-PF's director of information and publicity, told Sputnik Africa.
Marapira went on to categorically reject the legitimacy of these sanctions imposed by the US, describing them as illegal and fundamentally unjust.
He reiterated ZANU-PF's position that any partial lifting of sanctions cannot be celebrated as long as the overarching framework of illegality remains in place, and called for the complete lifting of all sanctions.
Marapira underscored the intricate link between Western sanctions and the suppression of African nations striving for autonomy and self-determination. He pointed out that sanctions are systematically wielded by Western powers to exert dominance over African countries.
"The sanctions are the latest tools by Western countries like the United States, against African countries, which are in pursuit of autonomy, which are in pursuit of self-guidance," he said. "Sanctions are part of this neocolonial agenda where African countries must always remain under the heel of the United States and its Western allies."
Drawing parallels between Zimbabwe, Iran, and Russia as targets of Western sanctions, Marapira condemned the selective application of punitive measures based on dubious grounds, contrasting the leniency shown towards other nations engaged in blatant human rights violations.
"And we find that this is why we find countries like Zimbabwe, Iran and Russia under sanctions on spurious accusations when we've got countries that are doing atrocities in Gaza, not facing any sanctions or any reprimand at all from the Americans, the double standards and the hypocrisy is eye watering and definitely intolerable," Marapira argued.