Sanction hurting ordinary people and not Mugabe - Biti

Tendai Biti, the Zimbabwe Finance minister and a senior official of the Movement for Democratic Change led by Morgan Tsvangirai, has warned that sanctions imposed by the West are hurting ordinary people and not President Robert Mugabe as he urged the United States to re-engage with Harare.

"Your foreign policy could be better, you don't deal with trouble states by disengaging. You must engage strategically to assist the people of Zimbabwe," Biti said in Washington on Thursday.

He was addressing the Atlantic Council, a Washington think-tank and policy group, on progress made in Zimbabwe's economic recovery and how to move the country out of its current political impasse.

Biti has found sanctions imposed by the West a major stumbling block in efforts to turn-around the country's economy.

But Biti also said the West should ignore divisions in the coalition government and support efforts to help the country recover from a decade-long recession.

"Don't look at politicians, don't look at Robert Mugabe and Zanu-PF, look at the ordinary people. The wait-and-see attitude is very retrogressive," Biti said.