Blair threat pushed military towards Mugabe

Zimbabwe academic and writer Blessing-Miles Tendi today said the threat by Britain to topple Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, whether real or not, pushed the military to support the Zimbabwean president.

In his contribution to the ongoing debate sparked by former South African President Thabo Mbeki that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair had contemplated military intervention in Zimbabwe just before the country’s economic crisis, Tendi said what was more important was whether the Zimbabwe military believed that there was a threat or not.

Blair denied that there was any threat to intervene militarily in Zimbabwe but Mbeki said he stood by his story which was aired on Al Jazeera.

“It … matters less which one is telling the truth, although it bears mentioning that this is not the first time Mbeki has spoken about this alleged British invasion plot,” Tendi wrote in The Guardian.

“Whether Blair actually considered military intervention or not is beside the point. What is significant is who in Zimbabwe believed that he considered it, why and with what consequences for Zimbabwean civil-military relations.”

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