The US House of Representatives has passed a bill allowing Americans to sue Saudi Arabia over 9/11, days before the attack’s 15th anniversary.
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A bill that would allow terror victims of 9/11 to sue Saudi Arabia was approved by Congress despite veto threats from President Obama.
A member of the French parliament, Pierre Lellouche, said he would consider retaliatory legislation in France, and would anticipate it elsewhere, if the final version of JASTA does not include waivers for countries that are us allies and actively involved in fighting terrorism.
Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas, who introduced the bill, called on Obama to sign the bill, now that it has passed both houses. “If they’ve done nothing wrong, they have nothing to worry about”.
The White House had no comment Friday.
The White House also has cautioned that if the door is opened for us citizens to take the Saudis to court, then a foreign country could in turn sue the United States. Saudi Arabia threatened economic retaliation if the USA passed this bill and the Obama Administration pressured both parties not to proceed with the bill, even though families and victims from 9/11 voiced their approval for the legislation. “If Saudi Arabia was culpable, it should be held accountable”.
In response, the Saudi Embassy said that the national September 11 commission in 2004 had already rejected allegations that the Saudi government or Saudi officials had funded al Qaida.
In April, Earnest said it was “difficult to imagine a scenario in which the President would sign the bill as it’s now drafted”.
Fifteen of the 19 September 11 hijackers who crashed airliners in NY, outside Washington and in Pennsylvania were Saudi nationals.
The legislation would eliminate sovereign immunity for foreign governments in cases involving terrorist attacks within the United States, the Washington Post reports.
Supporters of the legislation, including Schumer, have voiced confidence that they would have the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto.
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir has denied such threats, but he warned that investor confidence would be shaken if such a measure was enacted. He said Riyadh had warned that investor confidence in the USA would shrink if the bill became law.
Saudi Arabia has already made it clear that they intend to remove US investments in retaliation if the legislation is passed. This legislation would change longstanding global law regarding sovereign immunity.
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“When you start eroding sovereign immunity, I think it puts our people at greater danger”, said House Armed Services Chairman Mac Thornberry told the news outlet.
