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The truce between King Hassan II and Muammar Gaddafi did not last for more than four years. In 1984, Libya offered to establish political unity with Morocco and in August of the same year the two leaders gathered to sign the Oujda Treaty. The latter formed the Arab African Union, an organization aimed at bringing together the two nations and conflicted leaders.
However, the short-lived union was abolished by King Hassan II in August 1986 due to Morocco’s friendly relations with Israel and the USA. It was in this context that the Libyan colonel had thought of murdering the Moroccan Monarch. The plan was revealed in the memoir book of Atef Abou Baker, a senior Palestinian official close to Yasser Arafat, broadcast on the Saudi Arabian channel Al Arabiya.
Atef Abou Fath, a former official of the Fath organization, a Palestinian nationalist political party and the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization, indicated that in 1987, Gaddafi told Saber Al Banna, also known as Abu Nidal, a Palestinian terrorist, about his plan to assassinate Hassan II. Moroccan opponents were also called to reinforce the plan. In his memoire, Atef did not reveal the ideological identity of these opponents.
Moroccan opponents backed by Gaddafi
After the 1969 coup conducted by Gaddafi against the Senussi monarchy of Idris in Libya, the colonel strengthened ties with Arab nationalist governments and unsuccessfully advocated Pan-Arab political union. In his training camps, Gaddafi welcomed members of the Left and Islamists from Chabiba Islamiya, a violent clandestine and extremist Moroccan Islamist group back then. In the early 1980s, the leader of this organization, Abdelkrim Moutii, and some of his relatives who fled Morocco were living in exile in Libya.
Atef Abou Baker led by Gaddafi was determined to carry his plan and assassinate the Moroccan king. Thanks to a flight from Tripoli to Casablanca, weapons (Kalashnikovs and rocket launchers RPG) had been transferred to Morocco preparing for the big day. The group in charge of the mission had spotted the place of the attack : between the Touarga palace in Rabat and the Hilton hotel. The RPG rockets were intended to detonate the armored car of Hassan II. Meanwhile; the other assailants with their Kalashnikovs were to shoot the sovereign’s bodyguards, Atef said.
While Abu Nidal’s men and Moroccan opponents were waiting for Gaddafi’s orders, he decided to back down and cancel the operation. Atef Abu Baker explains that Gaddafi’s decision was mainly influenced by some political and security agreements signed afterwards between Morocco and Libya.
