Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe has been accused of reneging on the principle of power sharing.
US Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer said Zimbabwe's stalled power-sharing deal will not work as long as Mr Mugabe is president
Mr Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai agreed on 15 September to form a unity government, a pact supported at the time by the US.
But the agreement has been unravelling due to a fight over control of important ministries and Zimbabwe has sunk deeper into crisis.
Hyper-inflation means prices double every day and a cholera epidemic has killed more than 1,100 people.
Western nations, Zimbabwe's neighbours and investors had hoped a unity government with Mr Tsvangirai as prime minister would wrest enough control from Mugabe to reverse policies they blame for Zimbabwe's economic meltdown, and avert total collapse.
‘Today we know better,’ Ms Frazer said, adding she had been sent by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to explain the US shift in policy to other southern African countries.
Ms Frazer said she had urged Zimbabwe's neighbours to step up pressure on Mugabe. But South Africa said today it believed the unity deal represented Zimbabwe's best hope for change.
The US envoy cited abductions of MDC supporters, the spiralling cholera epidemic - which Mr Mugabe has blamed on his western foes - and the veteran leader's moves to unilaterally take control of important ministries.
She said Mr Mugabe was out of touch with reality and described him as a ‘man who's lost it’.
