North Africa Politics

Just before the ground war, when Persian Gulf tensions were greatest, a senior official with the French government in Paris noted a peculiar phenomenon of geography and Arab politics. "The popularity of Saddam Hussein," he said, "seems to be inversely proportional to the distance between Iraq and other Arab countries." With the exception of Jordan, where politics were dictated by a dominant Palestinian population, the Arab countries closest to the Iraqi president all vehemently opposed him.

Efforts to promote economic and political integration in North Africa got left by the wayside in the chaos of the Persian Gulf war, but now that the dust has settled, the region's five heads of state will convene Sunday to try to set their house in order. First on the agenda for the Arab Maghreb Union summit in Casablanca, Morocco, will be deciding what to do about the upcoming Middle East peace conference: Does the Maghreb want to accept U.S. Secretary of State James A.

Efforts to promote economic and political integration in North Africa got left by the wayside in the chaos of the Persian Gulf war, but now that the dust has settled, the region's five heads of state will convene Sunday to try to set their house in order. First on the agenda for the Arab Maghreb Union summit in Casablanca, Morocco, will be deciding what to do about the upcoming Middle East peace conference: Does the Maghreb want to accept U.S. Secretary of State James A.

Just before the ground war, when Persian Gulf tensions were greatest, a senior official with the French government in Paris noted a peculiar phenomenon of geography and Arab politics. "The popularity of Saddam Hussein," he said, "seems to be inversely proportional to the distance between Iraq and other Arab countries." With the exception of Jordan, where politics were dictated by a dominant Palestinian population, the Arab countries closest to the Iraqi president all vehemently opposed him.