AP interview with Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe

(21 Sep 2006)
1. Medium shot of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe:
"The situation in Iraq, again. Now it has developed for the worst. There is as good as civil war going on and the Americans are still there, the British are still there in Basra and so on, and it's a completely chaotic situation as it is."
3. Medium shot of Mugabe
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe:
"But if the day come for me to retire, I will retire. I will retire. In fact I think the day will come soon but I don't know when, when that will be, specifically."
5. Medium shot of Mugabe
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe:
"Look at recently what happened in Lebanon. And Israel attacking and it was not just the Israel arms. I mean, someone was pushing Israel from behind. It was the United States and then, naively, also Britain acquiescing it, and now Blair's in trouble, for having done that."
7. Medium shot of Mugabe
STORYLINE:
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe reiterated his criticism for the United States and Britain on Thursday in an interview with the Associated Press.
Speaking to AP reporters after his address to the 61st United Nations General Assembly, Mugabe also hinted that he might retire soon.
"I will retire. In fact I think the day will come soon but I don't know when, when that will be, specifically," he said.
Commenting on Iraq, Mugabe said the situation there had "developed for the worst. There is as good as civil war going on."
Mugabe also said that the US was "pushing Israel from behind" in the recent Lebanon-Hezbollah conflict.
Mugabe has been head of state in Zimbabwe for 26 years, ever since taking power following the bitter civil war against the Ian Smith government.
He was born in 1924.
Once hailed as a freedom fighter, Mugabe in recent years has been pilloried, particularly in Europe, for what critics call erratic and despotic
management and the denial of human rights.
Unrest in Zimbabwe, where annual inflation reached a record 1,204 per cent in August, the highest in the world, erupted again over the weekend.
Police and soldiers broke up a march by unionists planning anti-government marches across the country.
Mugabe said that he is becoming hardened to criticism and would never be driven from power except in a democratic vote.
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