Andrea Mitchell to Susan Rice: ‘Libya Is Looking Like a Failed State’

MITCHELL: "I know you’ve got a very full plate. I'm going to ask you to update us on Libya after the evacuation over the weekend, a successful military precision evacuation of all of our employees, all of the staff, including the marine guards from Tripoli. We’ve seen increased fighting now among these militias who were not targeting the U.S., I understand that, but are now fighting at the airport as well. Libya is looking like a failed state."

RICE :"Well, Andrea, going back to where you started with the decision that the United States took over the weekend to temporarily remove our personnel from the embassy in Tripoli, that was necessary because our embassy facility happened to be right in the middle of crossfire and sustained fighting between two rival militias. And it became an untenable situation.

So we have temporarily suspended our presence. Our ambassador and our team from the embassy continue to work every day fully and actively on the larger set of challenges in Libya, which you described, which is the fact that there are yet to be sustained and credible security forces that can wrest control from territory that some of the militia are now operating in. There are economic and governance challenges, but there have been successive elections which have now yielded a new council of representatives that we hope will be seated in the coming days.

There is a political situation which is unfolding that has some promise and yet the security situation is gravely worrying. But we’re going to very much remain engaged in Libya. It’s a country of significance to the region, to the United States, to Europe. And with our partners from the United Nations and Europe, we will continue our efforts to support the Libyan people.

And indeed, Andrea, this was one of the topics that president Obama discussed this morning when he met via video teleconference with his counterparts from the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy, where they discussed a range of international issues, including the situation in Libya."