Saturday, April 16, 2016

HOT Saudi Arabia Threatens United States: Will Dump US Treasury Holdings, If Congress Passes 9-11 Bill

Saudi Foreign Miniister Adel al-Jubeir
Saudi Arabia has told the Obama administration and members of Congress that it will sell off hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of American assets held by the kingdom if Congress passes a bill that would allow the Saudi government to be held responsible in American courts for any role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, reports NYT.

According to NYT, Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister, delivered the kingdom’s message personally last month during a trip to Washington, telling lawmakers that Saudi Arabia would be forced to sell up to $750 billion in treasury securities and other assets in the United States before they could be in danger of being frozen by American courts.

The administration, which argues that the legislation would put Americans at legal risk overseas, has been lobbying so intently against the bill that some lawmakers and families of Sept. 11 victims are infuriated. In their view, the Obama administration has consistently sided with the kingdom and has thwarted their efforts to learn what they believe to be the truth about the role some Saudi officials played in the terrorist plot.

President Obama will arrive in Riyadh on Wednesday for meetings with King Salman and other Saudi officials. It is unclear whether the dispute over the Sept. 11 legislation will be on the agenda for the talks.

  -RW

2 comments:

  1. I'm no fan of the retrograde kingdom, but one good reason is that IRAN was recently sentenced to pay restitution for 9/11 in a NY court (google it). In other words, whether a country had anything to do with it has apparently nothing to do with the potential legal consequences, as long as it has assets worth stealing. At least that would be the impression one would get from afar, I guess.

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  2. It was a default ruling because Iran didn't attend the hearings and says it wasn't notified. There is zero evidence that Iran had anything to do with the attacks. The ruling will be overturned on appeal.

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