‘Bitterness towards Egypt’ – the Moroccan nationalist movement, revolutionary Cairo and the limits of anti-colonial solidarity

Abstract

This articles analyses the campaign conducted by the Moroccan nationalist movement in Cairo after World War II aiming to enlist the Arab League in its anti-colonial struggle. Although the Maghribi activists initially celebrated several successes, they ultimately failed to obtain any diplomatic support, especially following the Egyptian revolution of 1952. Drawing on Moroccan as well as French, Spanish, and US sources, this article argues that Nasser and his colleagues refused to support the Moroccans due to irreconcilable ideological differences, thus laying the foundation for the scepticism towards the Arab world that characterised Morocco’s foreign policy during the Cold War.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Stuart Schaar, Omnia El Shakry, Susan G. Miller, Suad Joseph and two anonymous reviewers for providing invaluable suggestions and comments at various stages of this project.

Notes

¹ Ahmed Benaboud (Cairo) to Ahmed Benaboud (Tetuan), 16 February 1946 & The Delegation of Morocco to the Arab League, 8 February 1946, al-Hadaf (Beirut), 15 (13.01), Box 81/2173, Archivo General de la Administración, Alcalá de Henares (AGA).

² Commemorative Celebration of the Arab League in Cairo, 24 March 1946, M’hamed Benaboud File, Bennouna Family Archive, Tetuan (BFA).

³ Kilmat Ra’is al-Wafd al-Murrakishi Amhammad Ibn ‘Abud fi Ihtifal al-Jama‘at al-‘Arabiyya, al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun, 26 March 1946, 8. Reproduced in M'hamed Benaboud, Al-Nidal Al-Watani li-l-Shahid Amhammad Ibn 'Abud fi-l-Mashriq: Shahadat wa Watha'iq (Tetuan, Morocco: Manshurat Jama'iyyat Titwan Asmir, 1997), 46.

⁴ 'Abd al-Karim Ghallab, Tarikh Al-Harakat Al-Wataniyya bi-l-Maghrib (Casablanca, Morocco: Matba'a al-Najah al-Jadida, 2000), Vol. I, 440-442.

⁵ 'Allal al-Fassi, Al-Harakat Al-Istiqlaliyya fi-l-Maghrib Al-'Arabi (Cairo: Maktab al-Maghrib al-'Arabi, 1948), 380.

⁶ Takrim al-Wufud al-‘Arabiyya – al-Nashra 66 min Maktab al-Maghrib al-‘Arabi, 16 February 1948, M’hamed Benaboud File, BFA.

⁷ Ambassadeur Arvengas au Ministre des Affaires étrangères Bidault, 16 April 1948, 1MA/200/338, Centre des Archives diplomatiques de Nantes (CADN).

⁸ Les relations franco-égyptiennes et leurs incidences sur le problème marocain, 18 May 1955, Série M/24QO/71, Archives diplomatiques du Ministère des Affaires étrangères, La Courneuve (AMAE).

⁹ Salim Yaqub, Containing Arab Nationalism: The Eisenhower Doctrine and the Middle East (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004), 31-2; Joel Gordon, Nasser’s Blessed Movement (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 196; Avraham Sela, ‘Abd Al-Nasser’s Regional Politics – a Reassessment', in Rethinking Nasserism – Revolution and Historical Memory in Modern Egypt, ed. Elie Podeh and Onn Winckler (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2004), 184; Peter Mansfield, Nasser (London: Methuen, 1969), 97.

¹⁰ Wilton Wynn, Nasser of Egypt: The Search for Dignity (Cambridge: Arlington Books, 1956), 140; Adeed Dawisha, Egypt in the Arab World: The Elements of Foreign Policy (London: Macmillan Press, 1976), 9-20.

¹¹ Panayiotis J. Vatikiotis, The History of Modern Egypt (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991), 390-1.

¹² One good example is Paul Thomas Chamberlin, The Global Offensive: The United States, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the Making of the Post-Cold War Order (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012).

¹³ Mark Philip Bradley, 'Decolonization, the Global South, and the Cold War, 1919-1962', in The Cambridge History of the Cold War, ed. Melvyn P. Leffler and Odd Arne Westad (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 465. For two important works indicating this trend, see Odd A. Westad, The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005); Tony Smith, 'New Bottles for New Wine: A Pericentric Framework for the Study of the Cold War', Diplomatic History 24, no. 4 (2000).

¹⁴ Vijay Prashad, The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World (New York: The New Press, 2007), 51.

¹⁵ For an analysis of intra-Arab politics since the 1950s, see Malcolm H. Kerr, The Arab Cold War: Gamal Abd Al-Nasir and His Rivals, 1958-1970 (London: Oxford University Press, 1971).

¹⁶ Prasenjit Duara, ‘The Cold War as a Historical Period: An Interpretive Essay’, Journal of Global History 6 (2011), 476.

¹⁷ Mark Mazower, No Enchanted Palace: The End of Empire and the Ideological Origins of the United Nations (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009), 14-17 & 188.

¹⁸ Yahia H. Zoubir, ‘The United States, the Soviet Union and Decolonization of the Maghreb, 1945-62’, Middle Eastern Studies 31, no. 1 (1995); Samya El Machat, Les Etats-Unis Et Le Maroc : Le Choix Stratégique, 1945-1959 (Paris: L'Harmattan, 1996); Martin Thomas, ‘Defending a Lost Cause? France and the United States Vision of Imperial Rule in French North Africa’, Diplomatic History 26, no. 2 (2002); David Stenner, ‘Did Amrika Promise Morocco's Independence? The Nationalist Movement, the Sultan, and the Making of the "Roosevelt Myth"’, The Journal of North African Studies 19, no. 4 (2014); Irwin M. Wall, France, the United States, and the Algerian War (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001).

¹⁹ This approach is inspired by: Cyrus Schayegh, ‘1958 Reconsidered: State Formation and the Cold War in the Early Postcolonial Arab Middle East’, International Journal of Middle East Studies 45, no. 3 (2013), Also, Raymond Baker has pointed out that the ‘Nasserist vision of Egypt’s destiny was a grasp of the necessary linkage between domestic and international politics.’ Raymond William Baker, Egypt’s Uncertain Revolution under Nasser and Sadat, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978), 44.

²⁰ James P. Jankowski, Nasser's Egypt, Arab Nationalism, and the United Arab Republic (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2002), 54; Richard P. Mitchell, The Society of the Muslim Brothers (London: Oxford University Press, 1969), 108-161.

²¹ The original founding members of the Arab League were Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen, and (Trans-) Jordan.

²² Pact of the League of Arab States, 22 March 1945, reproduced in Anita L. P. Burdett, The Arab League: British Documentary Sources, 1943-1963 (London: Archive Editions, 1995), Vol. IV, 203.

²³ Ahmed M. Gomaa, The Foundation of the League of Arab States: Wartime Diplomacy and Inter-Arab Politics, 1941 to 1945 (London: Longman, 1977), 261. For a discussion of 'Azzam Pasha’s embrace of Pan-Arabism, see: Ralph Coury, The Making of an Egyptian Arab Nationalist – the Early Years of Azzam Pasha, 1893-1936 (Reading, UK: Ithaca Press, 1998), 407-412.

²⁴ Pact of the League of Arab States, 22 March 1945, reproduced in Burdett, The Arab League: British Documentary Sources, 1943-1963. IV, 206.

²⁵ Robert Rézette, Les Partis Politiques Marocains (Paris: A. Colin, 1955), 151.

²⁶ Khalifian Dahir appointing Benaboud and al-Fassi to represent Morocco in Cairo, 30 November 1945, M’hamed Benaboud File, BFA.

²⁷ The Delegation of Morocco to the Arab League, 8 February 1946, al-Hadaf (Beirut), 15 (13.01), Box 81/2173, AGA.

²⁸ Bulletin No 5 of the Central Committee of Hizb al-Islah, 7 April 1946, M’hamed Benaboud File, BFA.

²⁹ Carta del Alto Comisario de España en Marruecos Varela al Ministro de España en el Cairo Don Carlos de Miranda, 3 July 1946, 15 (13.01), Box 81/2173, Expediente 75381/3, AGA.

³⁰ Al-Akhbar al-Wataniyya published by Hizb al-Islah, 5 August 1946, M’hamed Benaboud File, BFA.

³¹ Benaboud to Tayeb Bennouna, 9 October 1946, M’hamed Benaboud File, BFA.

³² La delegación marroquí en Egipto - Boletín clandestino de noticias de PRN, 5 August 1946, 15 (13.01), Box 81/2173, Expediente 75381/3, AGA.

³³ al-Fassi, Al-Harakat Al-Istiqlaliyya fi-l-Maghrib Al-'Arabi, 375-378.

³⁴ Report of the first Conference of the Arab Maghrib held in Cairo, 15-22 February 1947, M’hamed Benaboud File, BFA.

³⁵ Idris al-Rashid, Dhikriyat 'an Maktab Al-Maghrib Al-'Arabi fi-l-Qahira (Tunis, Tunisia: Al-Dar al-'Arabiyya li-l-kitab, 1981), 65-6.

³⁶ Toumader Khatib, Culture Et Politique Dans Le Mouvement Nationaliste Marocain Au Machreq (Tetuan, Morocco: Association Tetouan-Asmir, 1996), 72-7.

³⁷ Ghallab, Tarikh Al-Harakat Al-Wataniyya bi-l-Maghrib.Vol. I, 440-442.

³⁸ By referring to ‘the Arab Maghrib’, the nationalists associated their struggle directly with the larger Arab world but also submerged the considerable Berber and Jewish minorities to their own definition of North Africa as characterised by an Arab-Islamic civilisation, thus adopting a European model of modern historiography ‘in which diversity … is denounced as deviance’ and the native population is fixed ‘into a closed homogenous destiny.’ See: James McDougall, History and the Culture of Nationalism in Algeria (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 234-5.

³⁹ Khatib, Culture Et Politique Dans Le Mouvement Nationaliste Marocain Au Machreq, 91.

⁴⁰ Lettre d‘Allal al-Fassi à Mohamed Lyazidi, 4 June 1947, 1MA/200/338, CADN.

⁴¹ Entretien avec Abdelkhalek Torres, 18 May 1947, al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun & Ambassade au Caire au Ministre des Affaires étrangères, 16 June 1947, Série M/24QO/65, AMAE.

⁴² Note de Renseignements No 39, 5 February 1948 & Ambassadeur de France en Egypte Gilbert Arvengas au M. Schuman, 6 August 1948, 1MA/200/338, CADN.

⁴³ Photographie prise en 1947 au Caire à l’occasion de la Fête du Trône, 25 January 1949, 1MA/200/338, CADN.

⁴⁴ Organisations d’Action de Propagande et d’Information Arabes, [undated], 1MA/200/338, CADN.

⁴⁵ Note de renseignements: Moghreb Office au Cairo, 20 March 1948, 1MA/200/338, CADN.

⁴⁶ Publication No 66 by Maktab al-Maghrib al-‘Arabi, 16 February 1948, M’hamed Benaboud File, BFA.

⁴⁷ His Highness the Mufti, 15 June 1947, al-‘Alam, 1.

⁴⁸ Lettre d’Allal al-Fassi (Le Caire) à Mohamed Lyazidi (Rabat), 4 June 1947, 1MA/200/338, CADN.

⁴⁹ Ambassadeur Arvengas au M. Schuman, 11 January 1949 & Chargé d’Affaires de France au Ministre des Affaires étrangères Schuman, 4 September 1948, 1MA/200/338, CADN.

⁵⁰ Chargé d’Affaires de France au M. Schuman, 18 September 1948, 1MA/200/338, CADN.

⁵¹ Chargé d’Affaires de France au M. Schuman, 4 September 1948, 1MA/200/338, CADN.

⁵² Ambassadeur Couve de Murville au M. Schuman, 21 May 1951, 1MA/200/338, CADN.

⁵³ For a discussion of the influence of salafism on the emergence of Moroccan nationalism, see: John P. Halstead, Rebirth of a Nation: The Origins and Rise of Moroccan Nationalism, 1912-1944 (Cambridge: Harvard Middle Eastern Monographs, 1967), 119-134.

⁵⁴ Although this name actually refers to his father, the Hero of the Rif came to be universally known as ‘Abdelkarim. For reasons of simplicity and in order to avoid confusion, I decided to use this incorrect patronym as well.

⁵⁵ Abdelkarim et la Ligue Arabe, 3 June 1946, 1MA/282/10, CADN.

⁵⁶ For detailed studies of the life of ‘Abdelkarim, see: María Rosa de Madariaga, Abd-El-Krim El Jatabi: La Lucha Por La Independencia (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 2009), & C. Richard Pennell, A Country with a Government and a Flag: The Rif War in Morocco, 1921-1926 (London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1986),

⁵⁷ M'hamed Benaboud, Maktab Al-Maghrib Al-'Arabi fi-l-Qahira. Dirasat wa Watha'iq (Rabat, Morocco, 1991), 48. & al-Fassi, Al-Harakat Al-Istiqlaliyya fi-l-Maghrib Al-'Arabi. 398-401.

⁵⁸ Abd al-Karim Ghallab, Abd Al-Karim Ghallab fi Mudhakirat Siyasiyya wa Sahafiyya (Rabat, Morocco: Manshurat al-Ma'arif, 2010), I, 455-457.

⁵⁹ Report of the Central Committee of Hizb al-Islah, 4 June 1947, M’hamed Benaboud File, BFA.

⁶⁰ ‘Abd el Krim jumps ships in Egypt – Farouk gives Riff Chief a Haven,’ 1 June 1947, New York Times, 1.

⁶¹ al-Fassi, Al-Harakat Al-Istiqlaliyya fi-l-Maghrib Al-'Arabi. 401.

⁶² Ambassadeur Arvengas au Ministre des Affaires étrangères Bidault, 30 June 1947, 1MA/200/338, CADN.

⁶³ Shuhada al-Maghrib al-‘Arabi, 21 December 1949. al-‘Alam, 1 & Maktab al-Maghrib al-‘Arabi, Bulletin No. 238, 7 January 1950, M’hamed Benaboud File, BFA.

⁶⁴ Ambassadeur de Murville au M. Schuman, 5 December 1951, 1MA/200/338, CADN.

⁶⁵ Ambassadeur de Murville au M. Schuman, 21 May 1951, 1MA/200/338, CADN. For a comment by US diplomats on the decline of Maktab al-Maghrib see: The Chargé in Morocco (More) to the Secretary of State, 13 June 1949, Foreign Relations of the United States [FRUS] (1949) VI: 1783-4.

⁶⁶ Ambassadeur Arvengas au M. Bidault, 1 December 1947 & Ambassadeur de Murville au M. Schuman, 8 January 1951, 1MA/200/338, CADN.

⁶⁷ Mohamed Lyazidi to Ahmad ben Thabet, 5 October 1948; Mohamed Lyazidi to Abdelkarim Ghallab, 30 September 1948 & Allal al-Fassi to Mohamed Lyazidi, 10 October 1948, 1MA/200/217, CADN.

⁶⁸ Letter Tayeb to Mehdi Bennouna, 23 October 1952, 1MA/200/56, CADN.

⁶⁹ Letter ‘Azzam Pasha to Benaboud, 18 August 1948, cited in Benaboud, Al-Nidal Al-Watani li-l-Shahid Amhammad Ibn 'Abud fi-l-Mashriq: Shahadat wa Watha'iq. 64.

⁷⁰ Les pays arabes et l’Afrique du Nord (Mai 1951-Mai 1952), 20 May 1952, 372QO/544, AMAE.

⁷¹ Letter Ahmed el-Melih to Mohamed Lyazidi, 25 January 1951, 1MA/200/338, CADN.

⁷² 'Issam Gharib, 'Abd Al-Rahman 'Azzam : Al-Islam - Al-'Uruba - Al-Wataniyya (Cairo: Matba'at Dar al-Kutub wa-l-Wathaiq al-Qawmiyya bi-l-Qahirah, 2011), 212-216; Michel Laissy, Du Panarabisme À La Ligue Arabe (Paris: G.P. Maisonneuve, 1948), 118.

⁷³ G.H. Neville-Bagot, ‘Muslim Solidarity at the United Nations Organization in Support of Moroccan Independence’, The Islamic Review (February 1952), 14.

⁷⁴ Représentation de la France aux Nations-Unies à la Résidence Générale à Rabat, 26 November 1952, 10POI/1/41, CADN.

⁷⁵ Mohammad Iqbal Ansari, The Arab League, 1945-1955 (Aligarh, India: Institute of Islamic Studies, Aligarh Muslim University, 1968), 80-86. For an overview of the Arab League’s reluctance to support North Africa before the UN, see Samya el-Mechat, ‘L'improbable ‘Nation Arabe’. La Ligue Des États Arabes Et L'indépendance Du Maghreb (1945- 1956),’ Vingtième Siècle 82(2004), 57-68.

⁷⁶ Les activités nationalistes nordafricaines, 19 February 1949, 1MA/200/388, CADN.

⁷⁷ Letter Benaboud to Mehdi Bennouna, 11 May 1948, M’hamed Benaboud File, BFA.

⁷⁸ Gordon, Nasser’s Blessed Movement, 55.

⁷⁹ Ahmad Abu al-Fath, L'affaire Nasser (Paris: Plon, 1962), 237; Jankowski, Nasser's Egypt, Arab Nationalism, and the United Arab Republic. 41; R. Hrair Dekmejian, Egypt under Nasir (Albany: SUNY Press, 1971), 111-113; Joel Gordon, Nasser: Hero of the Arab Nation (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2006), 6.

⁸⁰ Peter Woodward, Nasser (New York: Longman, 1992), 43; Jean Lacouture, Gamal Abdel Nasser (Paris: Bayard, 2005), 187; Anthony Nutting, Nasser (London: Constable, 1972), 76.; Frantz Fanon, L'an V De La Révolution Algérienne (Paris: François Maspero, 1966), 57-88.

⁸¹ For other examples of Egyptian support for the North African liberation movements: Tawfig Y. Hasou, The Struggle for the Arab World : Egypt's Nasser and the Arab League (London: KPI Ltd., 1985), 51; Nejla M Abu Izzeddin, Nasser of the Arabs. 203; Panayiotis J. Vatikiotis, Nasser and His Generation (London: Croom Helm, 1978), 239; Klaus D. Eberlein, Die Arabische Liga Vol. 2 (Frankfurt a.M.: R.G. Fischer, 1994), 145-150; Saïd K. Aburish, Nasser: The Last Arab (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2004).

⁸² Les pays arabes et l’Afrique du Nord, 12 May 1953, 214QONT/647, AMAE.

⁸³ Mitchell, The Society of the Muslim Brothers. 109, 127; Gordon, Nasser’s Blessed Movement. 98-108.

⁸⁴ Sonia Dabous, ‘Nasser and the Egyptian Press,’ in Contemporary Egypt: Through Egyptian Eyes, ed. Charles Tripp (New York: Routledge, 1993), 104-5 & Gordon, Nasser’s Blessed Movement, 140; Abu al-Fath, L'affaire Nasser. 239-240.

⁸⁵ Ilan Pappé, The Rise and Fall of a Palestinian Dynasty: The Husaynis, 1700-1948 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010), 346. On Nasser’s contribution to the founding of the PLO, see: Laurie Brand, ‘Nasir's Egypt and the Reemergence of the Palestinian National Movement,’ Jounal of Palestine Studies 17, no. 2 (Winter, 1988), 41-43.

⁸⁶ Direction générale: les relations franco-égyptiennes et leurs incidences sur le problème marocain, 18 May 1955, Série M/24QO/71, AMAE.

⁸⁷ New York au Résident général à Rabat, 17 December 1954, 372QO/580, AMAE.

⁸⁸ Ambassadeur de Murville au M. Bidault, 5 September 1953, 214QONT/647, AMAE.

⁸⁹ Fathi Dib, Abdel Nasser Et La Révolution Algérienne (Paris: L'Harmattan, 1985), 12.

⁹⁰ Campagne de la Radio du Caire contre la politique française en Afrique du Nord, 16 October 1953, 213QONT/484/AMAE.

⁹¹ Traduction d’une Emission Radiophonique de Langue Arabe No. 260 – Voix des Arabes, 21 August 1954, 1MA/282/50, CADN.

⁹² Les voyages africains du Cheikh Bakoury – futures relations de l’Egypte avec les pays d’Afrique du Nord, 10 January 1956, 213QONT/484, AMAE.

⁹³ Letter ‘Abdelkabir al-Fassi to ‘Allal al-Fassi, 24 September 1954, reproduced in: 'Allal al-Fassi, Nida Al-Qahira (Morocco, 1959), p. ‘nūn’.

^{94 ‘}Voice of Arabs Stirs Mideast: Broadcasts are now most potent’, 15 January 1956, New York Times, E5.

⁹⁵ Note sur les ingérences égyptiennes en Afrique du Nord, 20 October 1956, 213QONT/485, AMAE.

⁹⁶ Dib, Abdel Nasser Et La Révolution Algérienne, 17.

⁹⁷ Zaki Mbarek, Résistance Et Armée De Libération : Portée Politique, Liquidation, 1953-1958 (Casablanca, Morocco: MBC, 1987), 18, 53.

⁹⁸ Note sur les ingérences égyptiennes en Afrique du Nord, 20 October 1956, p.3 & 8, 213QONT/485, AMAE.

⁹⁹ Émission du Caire, 12 April 1954, 213QONT/484, AMAE.

¹⁰⁰ L’Egypte et l’Afrique du Nord, 2 September 1955, 213QONT/485, AMAE.

¹⁰¹ Martin Thomas, ‘France Accused: French North Africa before the United Nations, 1952-1962’, Contemporary European History 10, no. 01 (2001), 102.

¹⁰² Embassy Baghdad to Department of State, 2 February 1954, RG59/771.00/2-254, United States National Archives, College Park, MD (USNA).

¹⁰³ Ibid.

¹⁰⁴ Ambassadeur de France au Liban Georges Balaÿ au M. Bidault, 15 September 1953, 214QONT/647, AMAE.

¹⁰⁵ Ambassade au Baghdad au Ministère des Affaires étrangères, 20 October 1952, 372QO/576, AMAE.

¹⁰⁶ Note sur les ingérences égyptiennes en Afrique du Nord, 20 October 1956, 213QONT/485, AMAE.

¹⁰⁷ Télégramme de New York à Paris No. 2569, 22 October 1954, 10POI/1/41, CADN.

¹⁰⁸ Télégramme de New York à Paris No. 2434, 14 October 1954, 10POI/1/41, CADN. For analyses of the relationship between Iraq’s domestic and foreign policies, see Michael Eppel, ‘The Elite, the Effendiyya, and the Growth of Nationalism and Pan-Arabism in Hashemite Iraq, 1921-1958’, International Journal of Middle East Studies 30, no. 2 (1998), 245-7 & Charles Tripp, A History of Iraq (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 134.

¹⁰⁹ On Egyptian-Iraqi rivalry during the 1950s, see Patrick Seale, The Struggle for Syria: A Study of Post-War Arab Politics, 1945-1958 (London: I. B.Tauris, 1986), 186-237; Panayiotis J. Vatikiotis, Arab Regional Politics in the Middle East (New York: St Martin’s Press 1984), 83; Elie Podeh, The Quest for Hegemony in the Arab World (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1995), 243 & Muhammad Fadil al-Jamali, Inside the Arab Nationalist Struggle: Memoirs of an Iraqi Statesman (New York: I.B. Tauris, 2012), 253-260.

¹¹⁰ Télégramme de New York à Rabat No. 149-154, 24 November 1952, 10POI/1/41, CADN.

¹¹¹ Ambassadeur de France en Egypte Armand du Chayla au Ministre des Affaires étrangères Antoine Pinay, 29 August 1955, 213QONT/485, AMAE.

¹¹² UNGA Resolutions 812 (IX) in 1954 and 911 (X) in 1955.

¹¹³ UNGA Resolution 612 (VII), in 1952.

¹¹⁴ Adeed Dawisha, ‘Egypt’, in The Cold War and the Middle East, ed. Yezid Sayigh & Avi Shlaim (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), 29.

¹¹⁵ James P. Jankowski, ‘Arab Nationalism in ‘Nasserism and Egyptian State Policy, 1952-1958', in Rethinking Nationalism in the Arab Middle East ed. James Jankowski and Israel Gershoni (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), 156-157.

¹¹⁶ Dib, Abdel Nasser Et La Révolution Algérienne. 12-13.

¹¹⁷ Ambassadeur de Murville au M. Bidault, 4 December 1953, 213QONT/485, AMAE.

¹¹⁸ Télégramme de New York à Rabat No. 2838, 5 October 1954, 10POI/1/41, CADN.

¹¹⁹ Laura M. James, ‘Whose Voice? Nasser, the Arabs, and 'Sawt Al-Arab' Radio’, Transnational Broadcasting Journal 16(2006), 3.

¹²⁰ Ambassadeur de Murville au M. Bidault, 14 May 1953, 214QONT/647, AMAE.

¹²¹ David Stenner, ‘Networking for Independence: The Moroccan Nationalist Movement and Its Global Campaign against French Colonialism’, The Journal of North African Studies 17, no. 4 (2012), 1-22.

¹²² One example of the services provided by the Moroccans to the Algerians was the printing and distribution of the first publication of the FLN: Jabhat al-Tahrir al-Qawmi, The Peaceful Settlement of the Algerian Question (75-18 Woodside Ave, Elmhurst 73, New York, USA.: The Algerian Delegation c/o Moroccan Office of Information and Documentation, 1955). For the history of the Algerian diplomatic campaign, see Matthew Connelly, A Diplomatic Revolution - Algeria's Fight and the Origins of the Post-Cold War Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002).

¹²³ Another important reason was Nasser’s continuing opposition to the Moroccan monarchy even after independence: The Secretary of State to the President, 25 July 1958, FRUS (1958-60), XIII, 464.

¹²⁴ Note sur les rélations entre le Maroc et l’Égypte de Nasser, 27 July 1957, 130SUP/239, AMAE.

¹²⁵ Philippe Herreman, ‘Mohammed V au Moyen-Orient - Une mission de bonne volonté’, February 1960, Le Monde Diplomatique, 5. Mohamed V combined his trip to Cairo with visits to several other Arab states in order to downplay its significance: Embassy Rabat to Department of State, 7 December 1959, RG 59/771.11/12-759, USNA.

¹²⁶ Ambassadeur Pierre de Leusse à Rabat au Ministre des affaires étrangères, 13 April 1964, 130SUP/240, AMAE. & Salih Hishad … Muhawalat inqilab Ufqir wa sijn tazmamart, 6 May 2009, al-Jazeera.

¹²⁷ See for example: Maroc-Égypte: Nuage d’été, 25-31 January 2015, Jeune Afrique, 42-43.

¹²⁸ al-Fassi, Nida Al-Qahira. Foreword.

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David Stenner

David Stenner has recently obtained his PhD in history from UC Davis and is currently serving as the 2015/6 Sultan Visiting Scholar in Arab Studies at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at UC Berkeley. Email: [email protected]