Word: polisarios
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Like so many African crises before it, the Polisario dispute in the Sahara between Morocco and Algeria has caused the Carter Administration an inordinate amount of worry. As in such similarly intricate problems of the recent past that involved Zaire, Angola and the Ethiopian-Somali fighting in the Horn of Africa, the Administration has been sharply divided over how to protect its improving relations with the Third World while at the same time countering rising Soviet influence...
...present case, the question is in what way the U.S. can best use its influence toward bringing about a cease-fire in the Western Sahara between Morocco and the Algerian-backed Polisario guerrillas, who want to establish an independent state in the area formerly ruled by Spain. Morocco's King Hassan II is pressing the U.S. to sell him the Bronco planes and Cobra helicopter gunships he feels he needs to continue the fight against the guerrillas. The U.S. State Department opposes the sale and cites a CIA assessment that Morocco cannot win the war against the Polisarios...
...Carter resolved a foreign policy impasse by approving the sale of advanced U.S. arms to Morocco. The State Department had argued against the sale, contending that if Morocco's King Hassan II got American weapons, his opponents, the Polisario guerrillas, might solicit more help from the Soviet Union, posing the threat of another superpower confrontation in Africa. Carter instead bought the argument of National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski and Defense Secretary Harold Brown that the U.S. could not afford the downfall of Hassan, a prominent friend in the Third World. An unspoken but very real consideration: coming after...
...negotiations last year, Hassan had arranged to meet secretly with Houari Boumedienne, but the Algerian President's fatal illness forced a cancellation. Now it is more difficult than ever to see the outline of a possible settlement. Algeria has little to lose by continuing to support the Polisario so long as its own troops are not involved and Libya continues to provide much of the rebels' financing. For its part, Morocco is clearly not willing to give up any of its annexed real estate peaceably. Besides his own irredentist impulse, Hassan also has to reckon with the nationalistic...
Hassan's dilemma is also Washington's. Despite its 1960 defense agreement with Morocco, the U.S. has tried to remain neutral in the dispute and has refused to supply Hassan with arms to use against the Polisario. The Administration is in no mood to jeopardize sensitive oil and gas deals in Algeria, where the new, post-Boumedienne regime of Benjedid Chadli shows growing signs of wanting to seek better ties with the West...