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![\"Zimbabwe\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/zimbabwe.gif\")
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\n 5 Jan 2026
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PREVIEW<\/p>\n
\n As US regime change tactics spark debate, British plans in Zimbabwe come under scrutiny<\/p>\n
At the height of Prime Minister Tony Blair<\/a>\u2019s \u2018War on Terror\u2019 in 2004, British officials mulled whether a military operation could depose the \u2018depressingly fit\u2019 Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe<\/a>, according to documents released by Whitehall\u2019s National Archives over the Christmas period.<\/p>\n The Foreign Office, then led by Blair loyalist Jack Straw, quickly rejected the coup option. But the idea was\u00a0included in the memo, written in 2004 by Straw\u2019s private office as the public backlash against the United States\/Britain-led war which toppled Saddam Hussein was reaching its peak. That shows the depth of the Blair government\u2019s frustration with Mugabe (AC Vol 49 No 14, Deaths and deals<\/a>).<\/p>\n \u2018If we really want to change the situation on the ground in Zimbabwe, we have to do to Mugabe what we have just done to Saddam,\u2019 wrote Straw\u2019s adviser Kara Owen in a section headlined \u2018Removing Mugabe\u2019.<\/p>\n In 2000, the Labour government under Blair lambasted Mugabe for ripping up property rights under its farm seizures and land redistribution. But other options including tightening sanctions, a freeze on Zimbabwean assets held in the UK or breaking off diplomatic relations were all rejected by the Foreign Office.<\/p>\n Instead, Blair continued to criticise the Mugabe regime, imposing travel bans and asset freezes on leading Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front members, refusing to meet Mugabe and supporting Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai<\/a>. Tsvangirai is widely believed to have won the 2008 presidential election with an absolute majority but withdrew in the second-round runoff amid government violence that left hundreds dead. He became Prime Minister in February 2009 as part of what was marketed as a power-sharing coalition with Mugabe and ZANU-PF (AC Vol 50 No 3, Power-sharing for bankrupt beginners<\/a>).<\/p>\n The coup which eventually ousted Mugabe in November 2017, led by General Constantino Chiwenga<\/a>, installed Emmerson Mnangagwa<\/a>, who Mugabe had fired as vice-president just weeks earlier. Since the coup, human rights and economic conditions are widely seen to have deteriorated further under Mnangagwa\u2019s rule.<\/p>\n