North African States Eager to Play Roles in Middle East Peace Talks

By Jamal Amiar

Although the heads of state of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Mauritania, and Libyan representative Abdessalam Jalloud, convened their Casablanca conference only months after the war in the Gulf and months before the scheduled referendum in the Western Sahara, the issue of Arab-Israeli peace dominated the meeting.

In his welcoming address, Morocco's King Hassan devoted most of his speaking time to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, who followed King Hassan to the microphone, was even more explicit regarding the importance of reaching a settlement, saying that a stable Arab world and a stable Maghreb depended on it.

Libya's attitude differed little from that of the other Maghreb states.

In fact, members of the Maghreb Arab Union (UMA) have played various roles in Israeli-Palestinian politics. That was illustrated again in August, when US Secretary of State James Baker visited Tunis, Algiers and Rabat to propose that the UMA, as a regional Arab organization, send observers to the projected Middle East peace conference. In the Maghreb that idea received a warm welcome. Rabat offered to host the opening session of the peace conference.

On the eve of the Maghrebi summit meeting, delegates expressed uncertainty about only one question concerning the US-Soviet proposed Middle East peace conference. With Mauritania's international role being minimal and limited, and Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia having many stakes in the settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, only Libya's attitude was unpredictable in view of its deteriorating relations with the West.

Libya's attitude, however, differed little from that of the other Maghreb states, and they ended their summit meeting with an expression of support for the present Mideast peace efforts. Observers attributed the positive Libyan attitude to Lebanese, Syrian, Jordanian and Egyptian approval of the American Middle East peace proposals and Tripoli's desire to improve relations with Washington and the West.

Therefore, despite presently troubled Libyan-Western relations (on Sept. 20, Paris officially accused Tripoli of masterminding the bombing of a French civil airplane over Niger in 1989), UMA member states could, in their final statement, "welcome the present efforts undertaken in order to reach a global and just settlement of the Palestinian question and of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

Ties With Palestinians and Israelis

The various North African states have had many specific concerns or ties with Israel, the world Jewish community and the Palestinians throughout the years. Several thousand Algerian, Tunisian and Libyan Jews have lived in Israel since the 1950s and 1960s, along with no fewer than 700,000 Israelis of Moroccan descent. The Moroccan Israelis also have maintained strong ties with their country of origin, and several thousand of them visit Morocco each year.

The Maghreb states also have been deeply involved in the political aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. In 1965, while visiting Jordan and the West Bank, then Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba suggested a two-state solution to the problem, tied to the recognition of Israel by the Arab states. Today Tunis still supports that position, while at the same time hosting the headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Although a recent study published in Tel Aviv claims that trade exists between Israel and Algeria, the latter is strongly identified with the Palestinian cause. Algiers has provided facilities for the radio station "Voice of Palestine" for the past 20 years, and it has hosted the past two sessions of the Palestine National Council, in November 1988 and September 1991.

In September, in an interview with the Parisian newspaper Le Figaro, Algerian Foreign Minister Lakhdar Ibrahimi affirmed that "the only problem separating the Maghreb and Israel is the Palestine question. "

Without any doubt, however, it is Morocco that maintains the broadest ties with both the Palestinians and the Israelis. Since the 1969 Casablanca Islamic Conference, King Hassan has presided over the Al Quds/Jerusalem committee in charge of political and diplomatic aspects of the liberation of the Holy City.

It was also in Rabat, at the 1974 Arab summit conference, that the Arab states designated the PLO as "the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. " In 1982, in Fez, Morocco, the Arab states agreed on a Saudi-Palestinian peace plan based upon UN Security Council Resolution 242 and recognizing the existence of the state of Israel. In 1986, King Hassan welcomed then-Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres to Morocco for talks on Israeli-Palestinian peace. Even before that, in the 1970s, Morocco brokered the first Egyptian-Israeli contacts that led eventually to President Anwar Sadat's dramatic journey to Jerusalem and, ultimately, to the Israeli-Egyptian peace agreement. Despite diverse approaches to the problem, states of the Maghreb clearly are prepared to cooperate with US-inspired efforts to broker a final land-for-peace agreement based upon UNSC Resolutions 242 and 338, as proposed by US President George Bush and US Secretary of State James Baker, and endorsed during the Palestine National Council meeting in Algiers by PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat.

Jamal Amiar is a US-educated radio journalist based in Tangier, Morocco.