The discrete charm of Robert Mugabe

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe labeled US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson an "idiot" following the first meeting between the president an a US official in many years. The two statesmen were introduced during the recent African Union meeting in Libya, after which President Mugabe told Zimbabwean paper The Herald:

You would not speak to an idiot of that nature. I was very angry with him, and he thinks he could dictate to us what to do and what not to do. We have the whole of [the South African Development Community] working with us, and you have the likes of little fellows like Carson, you see, wanting to say: 'You do this, you do that.' Who is he? I hope he was not speaking for Obama.

Mugabe's appraisals of US envoys in the past is little better, calling Carson's predecessor Jendayi Frazer:

A little American girl trotting around the globe like a prostitute.

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