Officials announced that Southern African leaders will convene an emergency meeting in Swaziland's capital Mbabane on Wednesday to address the crisis in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has called on the United Nations to isolate President Robert Mugabe and deploy a peacekeeping force in the country. Despite the U.N. Security Council's recent condemnation of violence against the opposition and declaration that a free and fair presidential election on Friday was not possible, Mugabe remains defiant. The meeting in Mbabane, organized by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), comes as international pressure mounts on Mugabe to find a solution to Zimbabwe's political and economic challenges. Tanzania, Angola, and Swaziland's leaders will participate in the meeting as part of the SADC's troika organ on politics, defense, and security. The statement mentioned that the current SADC chairman, President Levy Mwanawasa of Zambia, and the SADC mediator for Zimbabwe, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, have been invited to attend the meeting. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss how the SADC and its troika organ on politics, defense, and security can assist Zimbabwe in resolving its current state of conflict. Tsvangirai, who has sought refuge in the Dutch embassy in Harare after withdrawing from the election, expressed concern that Zimbabwe would face further challenges if the international community did not intervene. He called for the United Nations to take stronger action, including isolating dictator Mugabe and deploying a force to protect the people. "We do not desire armed conflict, but the citizens of Zimbabwe require global leaders to not only speak out against the situation, but to also consider using military force for moral reasons," stated Tsvangirai. He emphasized that such force would be used for peacekeeping purposes, to protect the people and uphold the democratic process that Zimbabwe longs for. Pressure on Mugabe has been mounting from both within and outside of Africa due to the political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe, which is largely attributed to the 84-year-old president who has been in power for 28 years. The United States has called on SADC to denounce both the election and Mugabe's government as illegitimate. According to Angola's state-run ANGOP news agency, SADC executive secretary Tomaz Salomao stated that foreign ministers agreed at a meeting on Monday that there was a "climate of extreme violence" in Zimbabwe and that the government needed to protect the people. The intended run-off election between Mugabe and Tsvangirai was scheduled for Friday. Tsvangirai, who won the first round in March, did not secure an outright victory according to official figures. In March, Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change also won a parallel parliamentary election, marking the first defeat for Mugabe's ZANU-PF party since independence from Britain in 1980. Following Tsvangirai's withdrawal, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade and the leader of South Africa's ruling African National Congress both called for the postponement of Friday's election. Zuma, considered one of the most powerful figures in South Africa alongside Mbeki, has urged the United Nations and SADC to intervene urgently in the situation in Zimbabwe, which he believes has spiraled out of control. While Mbeki's approach has been one of "quiet diplomacy" with Mugabe and has resisted using South Africa's economic influence over Zimbabwe, Zuma, who replaced Mbeki as ANC leader, has been more vocal in his criticism of Mugabe. Despite the pressure from the West, Mugabe remains defiant and insists that the election scheduled for Friday will proceed as planned. "Mugabe stated that elections will proceed as planned. Those who wish to acknowledge our authority may do so, while those who do not should abstain," said Mugabe. Mugabe has overseen a decline into economic turmoil, with figures such as 80 percent unemployment and the world's highest inflation rate of at least 165,000 percent. He attributes his country's economic difficulties to Western sanctions.