King Hassan II

Now Africa's largest it surpasses regional rival Morocco's Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca...

He is edging closer to an age where becoming King Hassan III can be imagined...

How Hima Mansouri and other M6-era royal advisors would fare under Hassan III is unclear...

The question is when in what circumstances and then how King Hassan III can ensure the monarchy survives its current challenges in a kingdom that has been loyal but has the potential to explode...

Also on the list was the late King Hassan II's bodyguard and security chief 81-year-old Mohammed Mediouri who was sacked by M6 on his accession in 1999 but then married his father's widow Princess Lalla Latifa...

While M6's health remains in question Crown Prince Moulay el Hassan bin Mohammed al Alaoui turns 18 on 8 May edging closer an age where he could more comfortably become King Hassan III were his father's health to deteriorate further (AC Vol 61 No 22 Unrest simmers over economy and Covid & Vol 60 No 17 Divorce Moroccan-style)...

External intelligence service chief Mansouri is an M6 friend since they attended the Collége Royale created by his late father King Hassan II...

The White House said the US believed an independent Sahrawi state was 'not a realistic option for resolving the conflict and that genuine autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty is the only feasible solution' – Rabat's preferred solution since the reign of Hassan II...

Rabat has maintained close covert links with Israel since Hassan II became king in 1961 – reinforced by Mossad agents aiding the assassination of opposition leader Mehdi Ben Barka in Paris...

Morocco was generally united over Covid-19 until the key Muslim celebration Eid al Adha (also known as Eid al Kebir in the Kingdom) in August when rumours circulated that the King might call off festivities to stop family gatherings – as his father Hassan II did twice – at a time when huge numbers were under social pressures to buy sheep for sacrifice...

He looks more the part than his father ever did standing alongside Hassan II before taking the throne 21 years ago...

In the first week of Morocco's lockdown King Mohammed VI ordered a show of force his late father King Hassan II would have approved calling troops and tanks onto the streets of major cities...

During the early years of independence when he was courting Islamists the UAE's canny founding president Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al Nahayan retained Ezzedine Ibrahim to tutor to the young MBZ; the teenager detested the prominent MB thinker and his ideas proving so rebellious that Zayed put him under a more rigid regime under his Moroccan friend King Hassan II's control in Rabat...

The Fédération de la gauche démocratique leader Omar Balafrej makes comparisons with 'les années de plomb' (the years of lead) when from the 1960s to 1980s M6's father King Hassan II repressed opponents violently...

Yet Pretoria's efforts to get a much bigger role for the African Union in resolving the conflict have faltered since Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma stood down as AU Commission chair and Morocco was readmitted to the body in January 2017 ending a boycott called by the late King Hassan II in 1984 after Polisario's Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) was admitted as a full member...