JASTA may have serious implications: Obama aide

[gallery size="full" td_select_gallery_slide="slide" ids="94664,94671"]THE law allowing victims of 9/11 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia could have "serious implications" for shared US-Gulf interests, a top Obama administration official said Thursday. US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew made the comments at the opening of a meeting with finance ministers from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council. The US Congress last month voted overwhelmingly to override President Barack Obama's veto of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA). Fifteen of the 19 hijackers who carried out the 9/11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people were Saudi, but Riyadh denies any ties to the plotters. JASTA allows attack survivors and relatives of terrorism victims to pursue cases against foreign governments in US federal court and to demand compensation if those governments are proven to bear some responsibility for attacks on US soil. Lew said JASTA "would enact broad changes in long-standing international law regarding sovereign immunity that, if applied globally, could have serious implications for our shared interests." He said the Obama administration has proven its determination to hold people responsible when they commit "horrendous acts", but "there are ways to do that without undermining important international legal principles." In opposing the law, Obama said it would harm US interests by opening up the US to private lawsuits over its military missions abroad. Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies have also expressed concern about erosion of sovereign immunity, a principle sacrosanct in international relations. But the potential implications go far beyond the Gulf. Some British, French and Dutch lawmakers have threatened retaliatory legislation to allow their courts to pursue US officials, threatening a global legal domino effect. Riyadh and Washington have a decades-old relationship based on the exchange of American security for Saudi oil. Lew later met Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman to discuss economic and financial cooperation between the region and the US, the official Saudi Press Agency said. Global oil prices have fallen by roughly half over the past two years, forcing crude-exporting Gulf states to raise local energy prices, control public sector wages, and reduce capital spending in response to fallen revenues. Al-Assaf, who presided over the joint meeting of the finance ministers, said that the meeting explored the prospect of signing an agreement to establish joint free trade zone and an agreement to avoid double taxation between the two sides. “The meeting underscored the significance of concluding such agreements as part of boosting intra-trade as well as flow of investments. The finance ministers decided to complete the discussions in this regard in their next meeting,” he said, adding that the meeting was held in the Framework Agreement signed earlier by the GCC leaders and President Obama to further strengthen strategic relations between the two sides. Al-Assaf said the issue of US correspondent banks was also figured high in their meetings. He referred to the measures taken by the corresponding US banks with blocking transactions emanating from some Gulf banks. The meeting also discussed means of enhancing economic, financial, investment and trade relations between the two sides. The ministers also addressed the current and future developments of global oil markets as well as the global economic situation and their impact on the economies of GCC states. GCC Secretary General Abdullatif Al-Zayani also attended the meeting. On a visit to Saudi Arabia in April, Obama said the US and the Gulf would launch a new high-level economic dialogue with a focus on adjusting to lower oil prices. "We consider today's meeting an informal start to that dialogue," Lew told his fellow ministers. He noted "ambitious reform initiatives" such as Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 plan for economic diversification and social change. The American official also held talks with Deputy Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, second deputy premier and minister of defense, who heads the Kingdom's main economic coordinating body. Lew was to discuss the fight against terrorist financing and will have a meeting with Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Naif, deputy premier and minister of interior. — Agencies