MOROCCO'S SURPRISINGLY HAPPY RETURNS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00901R000700060005-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 17, 2005
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: March 25, 1986
• Content Type: NSPR

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Approved For R~42~.'LQ1 : CIA-RDP91-00901R0007000600
WASHINGTON TIMES
25 March 1986
THE ECONOMIST/on Morocco
King Hassan, who marked
his quarter-century on
Morocco's throne with a
big party early this
month, has something better to cele-
brate. He has recovered the smack
of authority and has made friends
again with America, which began
cold-shouldering him two years ago
when he made an alliance with Col.
Muammar Qaddafi of Libya.
Morocco's economy is still in a
mess, and the costly war in the West-
ern Sahara sputters on. But the three
main threats to the king - Islamic
fundamentalists, the political left,
and ambitious soldiers - all seem to
be under control.
Fundamentalism, which helped to
set off riots against food-price in-
creases two years ago, has failed to
become the menace in Morocco that
it is to governments of both the Ma-
ghreb's other countries, Algeria and
Tunisia.
This is partly because Morocco's
Islamic militants have not found a
crowd-stirring leader. But even if
they had found one, the ruthlessly
efficient interior minister, Driss
Basri, would probably have kept
them on the run.
The sting of the political left has
been drawn by its members' partici-
pation in Parliament (which, the
king has made clear, will continue to
exercise only limited powers). Even
the Communists and socialists have
proved gratifyingly nationalistic
over the Western Sahara, which Has-
san annexed 11 years ago after Spain
left its former colony.
The army, once a ferment of pan-
Arab socialists and admirers of
Egypt's Gamal Abdul Nasser, seems
smug because of the Western Sahara
stalemate. It understandably re-
gards this standoff as a victory over
the guerrillas of the Polisario Front.
The generals are also enjoying the
fruits of a $1 billion re-equipment
program, which began last year.
This will put Morocco's army well
ahead of that of Algeria, its great
Morocco's surpris
happy returns
rival in the Maghreb and the sup-
plier of the Polisario's increasingly
antiquated Russian weapons.
Hassan can also breathe easier
over his country's relations with
America. They went sour after the
king formed a-political union" with
Libya in August 1984. The
Americans began to court Algeria as
an alternative North African friend.
Both Chadli Bendjedid, Algeria's
president, and Tunisia's ailing
leader, Habib Bourguiba, were re-
ceived at the White House last year.
Hassan was told he would not be wel-
come. But Chadli Bendjedid, whose
professed socialist and non-aligned
country always kept its distance
from America, was not much moved
by these overtures, and the United
States seems to have concluded that
Hassan is not so bad after all.
The United States sent a
heavyweight delegation to the king's
ce e ration this month. William
Casey, head of the CIA, attende& so
did en Vernon Walters. America's
ambassador to the United Nations.
e Americai seem willing to
accept that the Libyan tie-up was
less of a Qaddafi-booster than they
originally feared.
The king argues that the "union"
was astute politics: it ended Libya's
support for Polisario, and hampered
Algeria's attempt to isolate Morocco
from the rest of the Maghreb. He
also hopes that the deal has given
Morocco a badly needed outlet for
its exports and a cheap source of oil
Prepared by the news and feature
service ofThe Economist of London.
Approved For Release 2005/07/01 : CIA-RDP91-00901 R000700060005-3