Zimbabwe expelled the Libyan ambassador and his staff on Tuesday for switching allegiance to Libya's ruling interim council, the foreign minister said. President Robert Mugabe is a strong ally of deposed Libyan ruler Muammar Qadhafi, who had signed several economic deals with Harare, including an agreement to supply fuel.
Foreign Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, a minister from Mugabe's ZANU-PF party in a fragile coalition with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, said ambassador Taher Elmagrahi and his staff had lost their diplomatic status after burning the flag used by the Qadhafi administration.