A critical look at the revocation of US sanctions on Zimbabwe while maintaining ZDERA- By Jonathan Moyo

Zimbabwe has the sovereign right to self-determination with respect to the making of both its domestic and foreign policies under international law. This is the one principle that the US government has not understood and not respected over the last 21 years; and yet the same US has no qualms about touting the importance of national sovereignty for Ukraine, just as an example of its duplicity and hypocrisy.

On the back of the foregoing, the issues that are outlined below are further highlighted and explained in the order they’re listed for information, context and analysis of the implications of Biden’s Executive Order 14118 discussed above:

1. Biden’s Executive Order Terminating a false 21-year old National Emergency
2. Zdera as the Enabling Act for the US ‘Zimbabwe Sanctions Programme’ since 2001

III. First and only US ‘Presidential Proclamation’ on Zimbabwe Sanctions made in 2002

1. First US Declaration of False ‘National Emergency’ in Zimbabwe in 2003
2. Second US Declaration of False ‘National Emergency’ in Zimbabwe in 2005
3. Third US Declaration of False ‘National Emergency’ in Zimbabwe in 2008
4. Biden’s Executive Order 14118 Terminating a false 21-year old National Emergency

It is trite that Biden’s 4 March 2024 Executive Order 14118 primarily revoked Executive Order 13288 of 6 March 2003; and with that revocation it follows that the additional steps that were subsequently taken to fortify the primary 2003 order, under Executive Order 13391 of 22 November 2005, and Executive Order 13469 of 25 July 2008, must, consequentially, also fall away.

Tellingly, the reason given by Biden for the revocation of these orders is that the declaration of a national emergency in these three orders “should no longer be in effect” and “is no longer needed”. But, crucially, there’s no explanation as to why the national emergency should no longer be in effect and is no longer needed; or why it in any event it was needed in the first place; on 6 March 2003 or for the last 21 years.

Why “the declaration of a national emergency in the three order in question “should no longer be in effect” and “is no longer needed”, is the question that must be answered; an answer is proffered in the conclusion of this write-up.

Below are two links, one to the Executive Order 14118 of 4 March 2024, and the other to Biden’s letter to Congress dispatched on the same date, informing Congress of his action.

“Executive Order 14118 on the Termination of Emergency With Respect to the Situation in Zimbabwe

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2024/03/04/executive-order-on-the-termination-of-emergency-with-respect-to-the-situation-in-zimbabwe/?

Biden’s Letter to Congress on his Executive Order 14118

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2024/03/04/letters-to-the-speaker-of-the-house-and-president-of-the-senate-on-the-termination-of-emergency-with-respect-to-the-situation-in-zimbabwe/

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