136. Telegram From Secretary of State Shultz to the White House1
White House please pass ASAP to Bud McFarlane in Fairbanks, Alaska. Subject: May 2 Algeria Naval Challenge.
To: National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane
From: Secretary of State George P. Shultz
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I understand that you have agreed to a DOD proposal to carry out an assertion of our navigational rights off the Algeria coast [Page 306] on May 2.2 Since this proposal was discussed at the meeting John Poindexter chaired at the White House April 24,3 tensions along the Algerian-Moroccan border have continued to rise and we have also repeated expressions of Algerian concern that certain aspects of our military relations with Morocco, including the joint exercises now underway, may in fact support current Moroccan operations in the Sahara.
These developments have convinced me we should postpone the May 2 challenge operation until later in the year. At a time when we have asked our Ambassadors in Algiers and Rabat to counsel calm and restraint to their respective hosts, we should take no action that would undercut their efforts. Nor would the purposes of NSDD 724 be served if the Algerian Government views our challenge in the context of the Saharan conflict or U.S.-Moroccan bilateral relations rather than as a neutral, non-political assertion of our navigational rights. A challenge so perceived would exacerbate the regional tensions that we have sought to quiet and put at risk our strategy of seeking improved relations with all the Maghreb states in support of a peaceful settlement of the Sahara dispute. Accordingly, I strongly recommend that the May 2 operation be immediately ordered postponed.5
I also would ask you to take another look at the proposed Greek and Turkish challenges and whether now is the best time6 to assert our admittedly legitimate freedom of navigational rights.
- Source: Reagan Library, Executive Secretariat, NSC National Security Decision Directives, NSDD 72 [United States Program for the Exercise of Navigation and Overflight Rights at Sea]. Confidential; Niact Immediate. Sent for information Immediate to the Department of State. Printed from a copy that indicates the original was received in the White House Situation Room. Shultz was in Seoul May 1–2 for meetings with South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan.↩
- In telegram Tosec 40380/126762 to Seoul, May 1, Murphy noted that “the Navy periodically schedules transits within 3 and 12 miles inter alia of the Algerian coast to demonstrate that we do not accept the GOA’s requirement for prior notification of innocent passage by foreign warships. We successfully challenged the Algerian requirement in November 1982. Since that time, DOD has proposed transits on two other occasions. Both times, the Pentagon was overruled in deference to objections raised by the Department. The NSC decided last week over the Department’s opposition to schedule another transit May 2.” (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, Electronic Telegrams, D840281–0242)↩
- No record of the meeting was found.↩
- National Security Decision Directive 72, “United States Program for the Exercise of Navigation and Overflight Rights at Sea,” December 13, 1982, stated that “the United States will continue to protect U.S. navigation, overflight, and related security interests in the seas through the vigorous exercise of its rights against excessive maritime claims.” (Reagan Library, Executive Secretariat, NSC National Security Decision Directives, NSDD 72 [United States Program for the Exercise of Navigation and Overflight Rights at Sea]) For text of the directive, see Foreign Relations, 1981–1988, vol. XLI, Global Issues II, Document 192.↩
- Poindexter underlined the words “I strongly recommend that the May 2 operation be immediately ordered postponed.”↩
- Poindexter underlined the words “now is the best time” and underneath it wrote: “There is never a ‘best’ time. JP.”↩