The United States of America has congratulated Zimbabwe on attaining 39 years of independence.
Through its embassy in Harare, the US wrote a message on Twitter which reads as follows:
We congratulate Zimbabwe on 39 years of independence today. The United States remains a committed partner to the people of Zimbabwe and shares your hopes for growth, prosperity and a brighter future.
The United and Zimbabwe have had frosty relations since 2001 when the former imposed sanctions on the latter.
Despite maintaining an embassy in Harare and providing humanitarian assistance running into the millions, the US has renewed the targeted measure on a yearly basis.
There have been calls recently for the United States to remove the sanctions. World-renowned economic commentator Steve Hanke said that the sanctions should be scrapped immediately;
Sanctions should be dropped immediately. Sanctions don’t work, the history of economic and financial sanctions is one failure after another, the production of all kinds of negative, unintended consequences.