Update | Obama in diplomatic jam as US Congress sends him bill allowing lawsuits against Saudis for 9/11 attack
Diplomatic nightmare looms for US leader as proposed bill violates rules to protect foreign government from lawsuits
The unopposed US House of Representatives vote Friday to allow families of September 11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia begins a diplomatic nightmare for President Barack Obama.
The legislation is sure to antagonise a key US ally in the Middle East which already has tense relations with the administration. While Obama is likely to veto the bill, the House’s passage by voice vote raises the possibility Congress could override him, for the first time in his presidency, and make the measure law. The bill passed the Senate by a voice vote in May.
“The Saudis will see this as a hostile act,” said Dennis Ross, Obama’s former Middle East policy coordinator. “You’re bound to see the Obama administration do everything they can to sustain a veto.”
The bill would carve out an exception to sovereign immunity -- the legal doctrine which protects foreign governments from lawsuits -- if a plaintiff claims to have suffered injury in the US from state-sponsored terrorism.
Fifteen of the 19 hijackers who perpetrated the September 11 attacks were Saudi citizens. Long-classified portions of a congressional inquiry into the attacks that were released in July found that the hijackers may have had assistance from Saudis connected to their government. The Saudi government has denied culpability.