King Hassan II announced Friday that he is breaking Morocco`s 2-year-old
”treaty of unity” with Libya because Moammar Gadhafi accused him of treason for meeting Israel`s prime minister.
In an hour-long radio and television address to the nation, Hassan said the Libyan leader had offended ”the honor and dignity” of Morocco.
Gadhafi and Syrian President Hafez Assad this week accused Hassan of treason for meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres last month.
The king`s inconclusive talks with Peres on the Middle East were the first between Arab and Israeli leaders since 1981. Criticism from hard-line Arab states soon afterward led Hassan to resign his chairmanship of the Arab League conference.
Syria broke diplomatic relations with Morocco because of the talks.
The Moroccan-Libyan treaty, signed in August, 1984, strengthened political and economic ties and included a mutual defense pact. It also caused tension between Morocco and Washington.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Charles Redman welcomed Hassan`s breaking of the treaty. ”This development is but the latest example of how the Libyan leadership`s behavior isolates the Libyan people from the international community,” he said.
Observers in Rabat speculated that Gadhafi now might renew his economic and military aid for guerrillas fighting Morocco`s claim to the Western Sahara. That aid ended when Libya and Morocco signed their treaty.
The treaty was the latest of seven short-lived Libyan agreements with its Arab neighbors, including unsuccessful ventures with Syria in 1969, Egypt and Syria in 1971, Egypt alone in 1972 and Tunisia in 1974.
