Obama Vetoes Bill Allowing 9/11 Families to Sue Saudi Arabia

President Barack Obama said on Friday he was nixing a bill that was passed by both the Senate and the House of Representatives, though Congress is expected to override the veto for the first time in his presidency, saying it would put American officials in jeopardy. reported Deutsche Welle.

According to media reports, the legislation would have allowed the families of 9/11 terror attack victims in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, to sue Saudi Arabia over its alleged ties to the hijackers involved in those crimes 15 years ago, by authorizing U.S. courts to waive any claim of foreign sovereign immunity in cases involving terrorism on U.S. soil.

The legislation, called the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), doesn’t refer specifically to Saudi Arabia.

However, Obama has warned that by allowing families of 9/11 victims to take that country’s government to court, the bill would open up the possibility of other countries doing the same to Washington.

Meanwhile, Obama’s veto Friday may delay the bill only temporarily. Congress could override the president’s action, and many Washington observers feel that such a rebuff to Obama is likely.

In a letter to the Senate, the Americain president said that the bill, the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, would “neither protect Americans from terrorist attacks nor improve the effectiveness of our response to such attacks.”

Furthermore, he argued, the measure would be “detrimental to U.S. national interests more broadly.”

Saudi analysts predicted

while all the Arab countries have rejected this bill , the Saudi analyst, Abdul Aziz bin Saqr has predicted that the Americain president, Obama would probably use the presidential veto to delay the adoption of the draft law and to show his friendship to what he calls the «Saudi ally» .

In his column published in the Saudi newspaper “Okaz”, the Saudi analyst added ” the president is fully aware of the futility of this veto in practice, Obama will stay in his office only for a few days and he knows that the adoption of this bill would be a task for the next president inevitably.”

According to Abdul Aziz bin Saqr, The Kingdom have to Develop a plan yo deal with lawsuits that might encounter in US courts, saying undoubtedly فhe next president will not begin his term conflicting with the Congress in order to defend the kingdom.