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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Libya
Index
Although some analysts classify Libya as part of the
Maghrib (see Glossary),
only the province of Tripolitania shares a common
history and culture with other Maghribi countries
(see Islam and the Arabs
, ch. 1). The lack of a Maghribi heritage, together with
the revolutionary government's predilection for Mashriq affairs,
has caused the Maghribi area to be of secondary interest to Libya
since 1969. In 1970 Libya withdrew from the Permanent Maghrib
Consultative Committee, an organization founded by the Maghribi
states to foster the eventual development of an economic community.
Nonetheless, Libya pursued an active foreign policy toward the
Maghrib, a policy that usually revolved around the issues of Arab
unity and the Western Sahara dispute.
During a December 1972 visit to Tunisia, Qadhafi publicly
called for its merger with Libya. Tunisian President Habib
Bourguiba rejected the idea and chided Qadhafi for his youthful
naiveté. In January 1974, only a few months after the failure of
the Libyan-Egyptian merger, Qadhafi pursued a new unification plan
during a meeting with Bourguiba at Jerba. Bourguiba first accepted
the proposed Arab Islamic Republic, but then reversed his decision.
He later stated that he had agreed only to the concept of eventual
Maghribi unification, not to any specific bilateral union at the
time. Relations subsequently deteriorated and became more strained
in 1975, when Tunisia supported the partition of the Western Sahara
territory by Morocco and Mauritania.
In March 1976, Libya began expelling several thousand Tunisian
workers. Later the same month, Tunisian authorities announced the
discovery of a plot aimed at high government officials (perhaps
even Bourguiba) and alleged that Libya was involved, despite
Qadhafi's denials. Tunisia later accused Libya of providing
military training to opponents of the Bourguiba regime. Now and
then, Tunisia (as well as other neighboring countries) has
protested against alleged Libyan subversion attempts. In 1976, for
instance, Tunisia charged Libya with attempting to assassinate
Prime Minister Hadi Nouira. And in February 1980, Libya was accused
of instigating the abortive uprising by Tunisian insurgents in the
town of Gafsa in central Tunisia, a charge that Libya promptly
denied. Nevertheless, diplomatic relations between the two
countries were severed.
As Tunisia's economic and political difficulties grew in the
1980s, dissent became more vocal, particularly in the poorer
southern region, paving the way for increasing the links between
the Jamahiriya and the Tunisian dissidents. Two issues caused
problems for the Libyan-Tunisian relationship. The first,
concerning maritime boundaries between the two North African
countries, was settled by an International Court of Justice ruling
in favor of Libya in 1982. The Court reaffirmed its ruling in 1985,
at which time it rejected Tunisia's appeal for reconsideration. The
second problem resulted from the expulsion from Libya in August
1985, of 40,000 Tunisian workers, partly as a result of the
downturn in the Libyan economy as a result of shrinking oil
revenues. The expulsions were also partially based on political
considerations because Qadhafi has considered expulsions a
political weapon with which to threaten uncooperative governments.
In retaliation, Tunisia expelled 300 Libyans, including 30
diplomats.
In the early months of 1987, there were signs of improvement in
Libyan-Tunisian relations. In March, Major Khuwayldi al Hamadi
spent three days in Tunisia as official guest of the government and
met with President Habib Bourguiba, Prime Minister Rachid Sjar, and
other high-ranking officials.
Libya's closest Maghribi bilateral relationship has been with
neighboring Algeria. Both countries share similar revolutionary
Arab ideologies, state-controlled economic systems, and
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil policies,
and both have undertaken Third World leadership initiatives.
Furthermore, both countries have comparable relations with the
United States and the Soviet Union. Algeria has concentrated on
internal development, however, whereas Libya has pursued internal
development and external activities almost equally. The two
countries' bilateral ties were strained by Libya's 1974 attempt to
merge with Tunisia, Algeria preferring to have its borders shared
by relatively weak states rather than by states that have been
strengthened and enlarged through unification.
Although Libya and Algeria have been allies on the Western
Sahara issue, differences in their positions became increasingly
pronounced in late 1978. Both countries originally had pressed for
Spanish evacuation from the area and supported the local
independence group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of the
Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro (Frente Popular por la Liberacion de
Saguia el Hamra y Rio de Oro--Polisario) toward this end. Algeria
wanted the area to become an independent state. Libya felt Arab
unity would be better served if the area merged with a larger
state, preferably Mauritania, with which it had close relations at
the time (Libya had been the first country to recognize independent
Mauritania; Mauritania was the first country to recognize Libya's
revolutionary regime.) Libya opposed the forceful repression of
Western Saharan nationalism, however, and when Morocco and
Mauritania decided to partition the area by force (Morocco
obtaining the larger share), Libya joined Algeria in supporting
Polisario's struggle against the two partitioning countries.
Together with Algeria and thirty-six other countries, Libya has
recognized the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), formed in
Algeria in 1976. Libya also supported the SADR's bid for membership
in the Organization of African Unity (OAU), along with twenty-five
other African states.
Libyan-Moroccan relations have, on the whole, been unfriendly.
A wide gulf separates moderate, monarchist, pro-Western Morocco
from the revolutionary, pro-Soviet Jamahariya. Rabat has often
protested Tripoli's attempts at subversion, for example, during the
1971 military coup attempt. Morocco's foreign policy goals have
usually been at odds with those of Libya. Qadhafi, for instance,
denounced Moroccan assistance to the government of Zaire when
rebels staged an invasion from neighboring Angola. In an abrupt
about-face, however, Morocco signed the Oujda treaty in August
1984, which called for unity with Libya.
For Morocco's King Hassan II, the union restored the regional
Maghribi balance of power, which had tilted in favor of Algeria,
Morocco's main rival and the primary supporter of the Polisario.
Algeria consistently supported the right of Western Saharan to
self-determination in the SADR. The SADR was proclaimed on February
27, 1976, one day after the Spanish withdrawal. King Hassan put
forward his country's claims over the former Spanish-ruled
territory, led 350,000 of his citizens in 1975 on a peaceful "Green
March" to key areas in the Saharan territory, and subsequently
occupied the former Spanish colony.
In view of their sharp ideological differences, the accord
between Qadhafi and King Hassan was evidently the result of
expediency. The king expected to persuade the Libyan leader to
cease supporting the Polisario and wanted access to Libyan oil. For
his part, Qadhafi regarded Morocco as a source of human resources
and support. Apparently, Qadhafi stopped his support of the
Polisario, albeit only temporarily.
Data as of 1987
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