After shaking hands in front of the cam-eras on July 21st, President Robert Mugabe and Zimbabwe's main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, seem barely closer to resolving their differences than they were three weeks ago, when discussions over power-sharing began. Together with Arthur Mutambara, who leads a small opposition group that split off from Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (mdc), they have been locked in secretive negotiations under the eye of South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, mandated by the region's leaders to mediate such talks. But so far Mr Tsvangirai has refused to accept a deal that could leave Mr Mugabe still wielding most of the power.rnMr Mbeki, often accused of being too soft on Mr Mugabe, is particularly keen to clinch a deal before the 14-country Southern African Development Community (sadc), the region's main club, meets in Johannesburg on August 16th. But as The Economist went to press, Mr Mbeki looked unlikely to succeed in time.
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