US TREASURY CHIEF WARNS OVER 9/11 LAW – GCC urges US to mitigate JASTA

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RIYADH, Oct 27, (Agencies): The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states have pressed the US government to mitigate any detrimental effects induced by the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), Saudi Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf said on Thursday.

In a statement to the press after a meeting of GCC finance ministers and the US Secretary of Treasury Jack Lew, with participation of Kuwait’s Deputy Prime Minister, Finance Minister and Acting Oil Minister Anas Al-Saleh, Al-Assaf said that JASTA could have a ripple effect across the world.

Meanwhile, the Saudi Finance Minister noted that the meeting tackled a number of issues germane to financial and economic cooperation, including plans to avert double taxation which will prove crucial to commercial investment.

For his part, the US Secretary of Treasury Jacob Lew warned of the ill effects caused by JASTA on his country’s ties with the GCC, adding the act will, “introduce major changes to international law, particularly, as it applies to sovereign immunity.”

On a related note, US President Barack Obama has warned that JASTA could have an adverse effect on the US ties with the international community, possibly paving the way for legal action against US soldiers. In late September, the US Congress approved JASTA, which allows Americans to sue foreign nations for acts of terrorism.

The meeting, which brought together GCC finance ministers and the US Secretary of Treasury for the first time, aimed to further strengthen strategic ties between the US and the GCC. A United States law allowing victims of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia could have “serious implications” for shared US-Gulf interests, a top Obama administration official said Thursday. Lew made the comments at the opening of a meeting with finance ministers from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, whose most powerful member is Saudi Arabia.

The US Congress voted overwhelmingly in September to override Obama’s veto of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA). Fifteen of the 19 al-Qaeda 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 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. 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 Salman’s powerful son, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who heads the kingdom’s main economic coordinating body. Lew was to discuss the fight against terrorist financing and would meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, Saudi Arabia’s counter-terrorism chief whose experience is well-regarded by Washington.

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