Obama Says Libya Is a 'Mess' Due to Europe, Gulf Failure to Help
- Libya involvement in 2011 `didn't work,' president says
- Obama talks about foreign policy in interview with Atlantic
President Barack Obama speaks in Rancho Mirage, California, on Feb. 13, 2016.
Photographer: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
President Barack Obama said five years after the U.S. intervened in Libya to topple then-dictator Moammar Qaddafi and prevent a bloody civil war that the plan pushed by advisers including Hillary Clinton “didn’t work” and Libya is now “a mess.”
Obama, speaking in interviews with The Atlantic magazine published Thursday, blamed lack of support from European and Gulf allies and longstanding tribal divisions within Libya for the failure of the mission intended to stabilize the country and usher in a democratically elected government.