We all recall that last September, the American intelligence agency has declassified a document revealing that in the Eighties, Algeria had suggested that Morocco grants a “limited autonomy” to the Western Sahara Recently, the CIA had declassified another document related to the same matter and the National Daily Intelligence of May 17,1988 had written that: “the recent openings to restore bonds (note: between Algeria and Morocco) follows president Chadli Benjedid request that Morocco accepts a compromise regarding the annexation of the western Sahara and gives a limited autonomy to the Sahraouis”.
according to CIA analysts': “The flexible position of President Benjedid is explained by his frustration to see the Polisario Front not securing a military victory over Morocco, as by the desire to see Hassan II participating in the Arab League special summit held in Algiers on June 7”. The Algerian president attitude is analyzed in the National Daily Intelligence of October 20, 1988, where it is explained that “President Benjedid had probably accepted some of his advisers’ intransigent position as an advantageous political operation, particularly following the climate of violence in Algeria, although the Algerians reject the attribution of part of their resources to the Polisario Front”.
This information is capital, because it explains the hardening of the Algerian position about the Western Sahara conflict as a diversion to cover the serious internal problems which the country undergo at the end of the Eighties and which almost pushed Algeria to the civil war.
