Office of the Historian

8. Memorandum From Secretary of State Haig to President Reagan1

Washington, July 6, 1981

[Omitted here is material unrelated to North Africa.]

4. Moroccan Ambassador’s Reassurances about Contacts with Libya. Ambassador Ali Bengelloun saw me today with King Hassan’s reassurances that he had not changed his mind about Qadhafi as a threat to peace and stability.2 Hassan wants us to view the Moroccan-Libyan exchanges before the OAU Summit as Libyan initiatives intended to advance Qadhafi’s OAU ambitions. The Libyans did help Morocco at the Summit by not objecting to the King’s referendum plan for the Western Sahara but “no deals were made” for the future.3 (S)

  1. Source: Reagan Library, Executive Secretariat, NSC Agency File, Secretary Haig’s Evening Report (07/03/1981–07/29/1981). Secret; Sensitive.↩
  2. A record of the Haig-Bengelloun discussion is in telegram 180293 to Rabat, July 10. (Department of State, Central Foreign Policy File, Electronic Telegrams, D810328–0364)↩
  3. See footnote 2, Document 7.↩