Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe was angered by the condescending attitude taken by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson trying to lecture Zimbabwe on how to conduct affairs of state, according to Monday's The Herald.

The president, who met Carson on the sidelines of the just-ended African Union Summit in Sirte, Libya, at the request of the U.S. diplomat, said he had been angered by Carson's condescending attitude.

Responding to a question on whether anything had come out of the meeting, the first such interaction between the president and a U.S. government official in years, Mugabe said he hoped Carson was speaking in his individual capacity and not for U.S. President Barack Obama.

"I was very angry with him, and he thinks he could dictate to us what to do and what not to do in the inclusive government," Mugabe said.

Sources who attended the meeting said Carson, who succeeded the abrasive Jendayi Frazer of the George W. Bush era, was briefed on the process leading to the inclusive government, the current state of the coalition government and working relations between the three parties to the inclusive government.

The meeting came in the wake of recent attempts by the United States and its allies to trash the inclusive government by claiming that it was failing to meet set "benchmarks", even though all the parties to the inclusive government have given the government a clean bill of health.

Zanu-PF, MDC-T and MDC leaders have pledged their commitment to resolving any problems arising from the implementation of the Global Political Agreement among themselves.

During Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's recent tour of Western capitals, where he also met Carson, among other U.S. officials, the "benchmarks" were cited as an excuse to maintain the illegal sanctions regime on Zimbabwe and to deny the country development support.

Carson, a career African-American diplomat, served as U. S. ambassador to Zimbabwe from 1995 to 1997, and ended his tenure just before the bilateral dispute with Britain flared up.

Source: Xinhua