United States Ambassador to Zimbabwe Christopher Dell was briefly detained on Monday after trespassing into a restricted security zone in Harare, an action Zimbabwe said was meant to provoke an unnecessary diplomatic incident, according to the Herald newspaper on Friday.

The Zimbabwean government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has since protested to the US Embassy over Dell's actions.

The incident happened on Monday at around 4:30 p.m. when Dell deliberately ignored the "NO ENTRY SECURITY ZONE" signs posted at the National Botanic Gardens near Mugabe's official Harare residence, the report said.

In a letter to the US Embassy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Dell "purposefully proceeded to the said zone and would have continued to enter the security installations were it not for the timely intervention of members of the Presidential Guards."

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Zimbabwe strongly deplores this flagrant disregard by the Ambassador of the United States of America of the security laws of Zimbabwe, a situation which would never be tolerated in his own country."

"Such action was taken in a calculated disregard of the rules governing relations between states and was clearly intended to provoke an unwarranted diplomatic incident," according to the letter.

George Charamba, information and publicity secretary, was quoted as saying that the US envoy "must consider himself very lucky that he is dealing with a professional army that the Zimbabwe National Army is. Elsewhere, and definitely in America, he would have been a dead man. His adventure is really dangerous."

Relations between the United States and Zimbabwe have soured in recent years, with Washington accusing Mugabe's government of rigging parliamentary and presidential elections since 2000.

Source: Xinhua