US opposed to bill allowing 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia

The White House today said it opposes a congressional legislation which would potentially allow the Saudi Arabia to be sued in American courts over the September 11, 2001 attacks.
"Our concerns about this law are not related to its impact on our relationship with one particular country. In fact, our concern is about an important principle of international law, the whole notion of sovereign immunity is at stake," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said.
The bipartisan bill has yet to make it to the Senate floor, but already it has triggered outrage in Riyadh.
"It is one that has more significant consequences for the United States than any other country. The concern that we have is simply this: it could put United States, and our taxpayers, and our service members and our diplomats at significant risk, if other countries were to adopt a similar law," Earnest told reporters at his daily news conference.

He was responding to a question on White House's opposition to the Schumer-Cornyn legislation which if passed would allow the victims of 9/11 to sue Saudi Arabia as a majority of the terrorists were from the country.
Earnest said, "the White House is opposed to the bill."

"Let me give you one example. The United States is involved in a wide variety of humanitarian relief efforts in countries around the world at any given time. If somebody decided that they wanted to -- that they were unhappy with the way those humanitarian relief efforts were being carried out, you can imagine someone in some faraway country would file a lawsuit against United States for our humanitarian relief efforts," he explained.

"This, again, could potentially put the United States and our taxpayers at risk; it can also put individual US service members, who are often involved in those humanitarian efforts at risk as well," he said, adding that that's the reason for principle of sovereign immunity to be critically important.
It allows countries to resolve their differences through diplomacy, and not through the courts in one country or the other.
"We continue to believe that the concerns that we have with Saudi Arabia can be addressed through diplomacy," he said.
"Of course they're important to counterterrorism partner to the United States. There are a variety of areas where we work closely together -- everything from trying to resolve the situation in Syria, to degrading and ultimately destroying ISIL, to fighting Al Qaeda in Yemen, or to counter Iran's malign activities in the region," he added.

US President Barack Obama heads to Saudi Arabia tomorrow amid tensions over congressional legislation.