Marriage of Convenience

In the annals of diplomacy, there are few suitors more ardent than Muammar Gaddafi. During his 15-year reign, the Libyan leader has proposed formal alliances with Syria, Egypt, Tunisia, Chad, Sudan and Algeria. None of those marriages has endured.

Yet Western diplomats were surprised last week when Gaddafi signed a "union of states" agreement with Morocco's King Hassan II. The two nations are the region's oddest couple. While Libya is a radical socialist state, Morocco is a traditional monarchy; while Gaddafi is a sworn enemy of the U.S., Hassan is a firm ally.

The liaison, of course, has less to do with amity than with convenience. Hassan seeks Libyan oil dollars to cure his country's economic ills and wants to ensure that Gaddafi does not resume his support of the Polisario guerrillas that have plagued Morocco since 1976. Gaddafi hopes to end Libya's political isolation, especially from its nearest neighbors; he was nettled by his exclusion from a friendship treaty signed by Algeria, Tunisia and Mauritania in 1983.

Since Moroccan officials say privately that Gaddafi cannot be trusted, and since the Libyan leader has not hidden his disdain of Hassan's Western ways, the union is likely to meet the same fate as Libya's King previous marriages.