Saudi Arabia reacted and warned the United States after the overwhelming vote the US Congress has made to override President Barack Obama's veto of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA). A Saudi Foreign Ministry source called on US Congress "to take necessary measures to counter the disastrous consequences" of the law.
President Obama has vetoed the law because it would harm US interests by undermining the principle of sovereign immunity, opening up the US to private lawsuits over its military missions abroad. However, the US Senate voted a 97-1 against the veto.
The law would allow families of September 11 attack to sue the Saudi Arabian government. This would also give harm not only to United States relationship to its allies but to all nations as it is every state's right to possess sovereign immunity. "This law weakens the immunity of states, and will have a negative impact on all countries "including the United States," the Saudi spokesman said, expressing hope that "wisdom will prevail."
The six nations Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and United Arab Emirates of the Gulf Cooperation Council including Saudi Arabia which is the most powerful among them also expressed disagreement with the US Senate.
Analysts warned about Saudi Arabia's possible reduction of cooperation as far as security and intelligence is concerned. Riyadh has the option.
Salman al-Ansari, head of the Saudi American Public Relation Affairs Committee, a committee that has private initiative to strengthen Saudi-US ties said that the bill would have strategic implications for the United States. "This partnership has helped provide US authorities with accurate intelligence information that helped stopped attacks," Ansari said further.
The Washington-Riyadh ties has been worn-out during the Obama administration and it is feared to be totally cut.
A certain Saudi prince threatened to pull out billions of dollars of assets if the bill would become law.
It was known that 15 out of the 19 persons who carried out the September 11 attack were Saudi Arabia nationals. But Saudi denied any ties with them.
