Office of the Historian

31. Memorandum for the Record1

Washington, December 20, 1983

SUBJECT

  • NEA/CIA/INR Meeting, 16 December 1983

PARTICIPANTS

  • NEA—Ambassador Murphy
  • Ambassador Schneider
  • CIA/DDO—[name not declassified]
  • INR/C—Walter Clarke

The following subjects were discussed in the NEA/CIA/INR weekly intelligence coordination meeting held in Assistant Secretary Richard Murphy’s office on 16 December 1983:

North Africa. Deputy Assistant Secretary Schneider accompanied the Secretary on his visit to Morocco the previous week and subsequently left the Secretary’s party to make a personal visit to Algeria. His travels provided the focus for some very interesting observations on changing alliances in North Africa. On the Secretary’s trip,2 it was considered unfortunate that the Secretary did not raise with King Hassan [as suggested in his briefing notes]3 the matter of King Hassan’s apparent rapprochement with Libyan leader Qadhafi. There is some irony in the fact that Libya’s diplomatic success in becoming reintegrated to the Arab world began with initiatives taken by Saudi Arabia.

Obviously the quid pro quo for Moroccan assistance to Libya [recall the ongoing Moroccan efforts to arrange a meeting between a senior USG representative and the Libyan Qadaf al-Dam]4 is Libyan complaisance on the Western Sahara. This has led to closer cooperation between Algeria and Tunisia as well as to strange moves by Morocco.

Schneider reported the Algerian comment that Hassan is so emboldened by his Libyan tie that the Algerians feel compelled to stand firm on Western Sahara.5 The NEA Deputy asserted that the USG is troubled [Page 62] by the evident warmth in the Hassan/Qadhafi relationship. He is concerned that we have not mentioned this preoccupation to Hassan.

[Omitted here is information unrelated to North Africa.]

  1. Source: Department of State, INR/IL Historical Records, NEA/CIA/INR Meetings 1983. Secret; Sensitive; [handling restriction not declassified]. Drafted by Clarke (INR/C).↩
  2. See Document 221. A complete record of the Shultz-Hassan conversation is in telegram 9409 from Rabat, December 14. (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, Electronic Telegrams, D830736–0509)↩
  3. Briefing notes were not found. Brackets are in the original.↩
  4. Brackets are in the original.↩
  5. In telegram 5522 from Algiers, December 14, the Embassy reported that during a December 13 meeting with Schneider and Newlin, Kerroum said “Qadahafi’s visit to Rabat may have left the impression that the Polisario would fade away without Libyan support. Kerroum said that such an assumption is wrong. Regardless of Algerian logistical support, the Polisario has large stockpiles of Libyan-supplied armaments.” (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, Electronic Telegrams, D830738–0115) No record of Schneider’s concern about the Hassan/Qadhafi relationship was found.↩