Obama vetoes bill allowing 9/11 terror victims' families to sue Saudi Arabia

U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday vetoed a bill that would allow the families of the Sept. 11 terror attacks' victims to sue Saudi Arabia in U.S. courts.

The bill, named Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), would remove the sovereign immunity in U.S. courts from Saudi government, which is not designated state sponsor of terrorism by the United States.

In a letter of notice to the Senate, Obama said that he made the decision because the bill "would be detrimental to U.S. national interests."

"Enacting JASTA into law, however, would neither protect Americans from terrorist attacks nor improve the effectiveness of our response to such attacks," Obama said.

Obama listed three reasons behind his decision to veto the bill that was passed by both chambers of U.S. Congress.

First, the bill threatens to reduce the effectiveness of U.S. response to a foreign government that supports terrorism, by taking such matters out of the hands of national security and foreign policy professionals who will designate a state sponsor of terrorism after careful reviews.

Second, the bill would upset longstanding international principles regarding sovereign immunity, putting in place rules that, if applied globally, could have serious implications for U.S. national interests as the U.S. has larger international presence than any other country.

Third, the bill threatens to create complications in U.S. relationships with even its closest partners, whose counterterrorism cooperation with the U.S. will be limited in future.

Families of the Sept. 11 victims have been trying to sue the Saudi royal family, Saudi banks and charities in U.S. courts, on ground that the Saudi government provided financial support for terrorism.

Bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks which killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington D.C. area and Pennsylvania, was a wealthy Saudi national.

But the families' efforts have largely been stymied, in part because of a 1976 law that gives foreign nations some immunity from lawsuits in American courts.

The JASTA has already drawn strong criticism from the Saudi government, a close U.S. partner in fighting terrorism in the Middle East, which has denied any role in the plot of the 2001 terror attacks.

Saudi Arabia has also threatened to sell off hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of American assets held by the kingdom if the U.S. passes and enacts the bill.

It requires votes from two-thirds of the members in the House and Senate to override a presidential veto.

The White House is working hard to prevent the Republican-controlled Congress from overriding the veto, said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

"I can confirm for you that we continue to make a forceful case to members of Congress that overriding the president's veto means that this country will start pursuing a less forceful approach in dealing with state sponsors of terrorism and potentially opens up U.S. servicemembers and diplomats and even companies to spurious lawsuits in kangaroo courts around the world," Earnest told a news briefing Friday. Endit