Saudi Arabia Threatens To Pull $750 Billion In U.S. Assets If Congress Passes 9/11 Bill
KABUL: (MEP) Saudi Arabia has threatened it will sell off $750 billion of American assets if the U.S. Congress passes a bilateral bill that would allow the kingdom to be held responsible in US courts for any role in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
The warning was delivered by Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir last month during a visit to Washington, the New York Times reported.
The Obama administration has lobbied Congress to block the bill’s passage, according to administration officials and congressional aides from both parties, and the Saudi threats have been the subject of intense discussions in recent weeks between lawmakers and officials from the State Department and the Pentagon.
The officials have warned senators of diplomatic and economic fallout from the legislation.
The Saudis did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Asked if President Barack Obama would veto the legislation if passed by Congress, a senior administration official told CNN that “rather than entertain a hypothetical, we believe there needs to be more careful consideration of the potential unintended consequences of its enactment before proceeding with legislation.”
“We would welcome opportunities to engage with the Congress on that discussion,” the official added.
President Obama is expected to visit Riyadh next week. It’s not clear whether the issue will be discussed during the visit.
Saudi officials have long denied that the kingdom had any role in the Sept. 11 plot, and the 9/11 Commission found “no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded the organization.” But critics have noted that the commission’s narrow wording left open the possibility that less senior officials or parts of the Saudi government could have played a role. Suspicions have lingered, partly because of the conclusions of a 2002 congressional inquiry into the attacks that cited some evidence that Saudi officials living in the United States at the time had a hand in the plot.
Those conclusions, contained in 28 pages of the report, still have not been released publicly.
