Zimbabwe summons US ambassador over Trump adviser’s ‘foreign adversaries’ list

Zimbabwe expressed anger after national security adviser Robert O’Brien listed the country among possible “foreign adversaries” taking advantage of the George Floyd unrest to “sow discord” in the United States.

The State Department confirmed to the Washington Examiner that U.S. Ambassador Brian Nichols met with Zimbabwean Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo after O’Brien included the country with Iran, China, and Russia during a Sunday interview. O’Brien said the countries were “going to take advantage of this crisis to sow discord and to try and damage our democracy” and could face retaliation.

A State Department spokesman said Nichols “reiterated the U.S. government’s call for Zimbabwe to end state-sponsored violence against peaceful protesters, members of civil society, labor leaders and members of the opposition in Zimbabwe, and to investigate and hold accountable those responsible for human rights violations and abuses.”

(Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP)

Nichols added that the country needs to hold those who abuse human rights accountable.

“As an African American, for as long as I can remember, I have known that my rights and my body were not fully my own,” he said in a statement. “I have also always known that America, conceived in liberty, has always aspired to be better ⁠— a shining city on a hill ⁠— and that is why I have dedicated my life to her service.”

“In a long, unbroken line of black men and women, George Floyd gave the last full measure of devotion to point us to a new birth in freedom,” the ambassador continued. “Every American official from our President to Minneapolis’s African American Police Chief Medaria Arradondo has vowed to deliver justice.”

He also referred to Zimbabwean democracy and human rights activists who have disappeared in the country, writing, “Zimbabweans surely wonder when, after so many years, Patrick Nabanyama, Itai Dzamara, and Paul Chizuze will get justice.”

“Americans will continue to speak out for justice whether home or abroad. We can meet the ideals of our founding, we will change this world for the better,” Nichols said.

Other countries listed among the foreign adversaries list have waded into the controversy, which began when Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Officer Derek Chauvin was filmed pinning Floyd to the ground for nearly nine minutes. Floyd said he could not breathe, fell unconscious, and was later declared dead. Protests have morphed into riots in some parts of the country as demonstrators express their anger about police brutality against black people.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif alluded to the death over Twitter and called for a “war against racism.”

“Some don’t think #BlackLivesMatter,” Zarif wrote. “To those of us who do: it is long overdue for the entire world to wage war against racism. Time for a #WorldAgainstRacism.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responded to Zarif’s statement, tweeting, “You hang homosexuals, stone women and exterminate Jews.”