Finally, a deal in Zimbabwe

It looks like Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai have finally agreed to a power-sharing deal in Zimbabwe, but whether this will end months of political turmoil is still anybody's guess.

The deal was agreed to late Thursday night, it is suppose to be signed and made public on Monday, so the details are not available, but the two men and their parties - Mugabe's ZANU-PF and Tsvangirai's MDC - will share power just about equally according to reports.

Mugabe will remain as president with control of Zimbabwe's military, Tsvangirai will be made the Prime Minister (a post Mugabe had abolished years ago) and take control of the country's security forces, which in the past have been used to terrorize Mugabe's political opponents. Tsvangirai will also control the country's cabinet of ministers, which will be made up of members from both parties; Mugabe will chair a new body called the Council of State that will oversee the actions of the Cabinet and will again be made up of members from both parties.

It's a pretty convoluted system to be sure, but it does seem to split power pretty equally between the two sides. For weeks Mugabe had been pushing for a deal where he would retain the real power in the government while sticking Tsvangirai with the thankless task of trying to fix Zimbabwe's fractured economy; for his part Tsvangirai wanted to stick Mugabe in a purely ceremonial role as president.

Of course the deal still has to be signed and a lot of supporters on both side are said not to be happy about it, so the whole thing could still fall apart. One thing that might help is the vast amounts of foreign aid, pledged by countries on the condition that Tsvangirai and the MDC get some role in running the country.