Word: moroccos
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...contemporary ruler is as crafty and consistently surprising as Shakespeare's Henry V, it is surely King Hassan II of Morocco. Like Prince Hal, Hassan was once a high-spirited playboy who has managed to disarm his critics by adroitly consolidating his power. Since he inherited the throne at age 31 from his father Mohammed V in 1961, Hassan has worked hard to make himself and his kingdom Western, Arabic and African all at once. He can play by turns the extravagant cosmopolite who rides horses with President Reagan, and the devout Muslim who is officially known as Commander...
...King's lengthy repertoire of roles was on display once again last week, when Morocco held its first national elections in seven years. As one of the Third World's more democratic monarchs, Hassan allows his subjects to vote for 204 of the 306 seats in the legislative assembly (the rest are appointed by local councils). But in practice, the King himself chooses the Prime Minister and all the Cabinet ministers, often from among his family and friends. This year, however, with Morocco's standard of living on the wane and social unrest on the rise, Hassan...
Meanwhile, the King has cultivated abroad an unlikely assortment of friends. Morocco, which sits strategically on the southern bank of the Strait of Gibraltar, is considered by Washington to be a useful ally and a potentially valuable airbase. In return, the U.S. provides Hassan with $140 million in aid and an arsenal of sophisticated arms. Nonetheless, the King remains very much his own master, as evidenced by his recent treaty with Libya, a major U.S. foe. He apparently hopes that the surprise agreement may help revive his stricken economy with infusions of Libyan oil and investment...
...that the King had been the moving and controlling force in the partnership and that Hassan, after more than a decade of swapping insults and threats with Gaddafi, had every hope of taming his mercurial new friend. In addition, said Guedira, the pact between the two countries would bolster Morocco's military strength against such inimical neighbors as Algeria and Tunisia without in any way jeopardizing its friendship with the U.S. But Administration officials, who now fear that arms and funds sent to Morocco may fall into the hands of Libya, remained unconvinced. In effect, admitted one senior official...
...unlikely liaison scattered diplomatic sparks in many directions. Washington dispatched roving Ambassador Vernon Walters to Rabat to warn Hassan that an angry Congress might now try to block the $140 million in military and economic aid earmarked for Morocco in fiscal 1985. French President François Mitterrand sent a minister to Algeria and another to Chad; he himself dashed off to Rabat to see whether the new alliance could be of help in settling French differences with Libya in Chad. Even Syrian President Hafez Assad, who has not left his country since a serious heart attack ten months...