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Senior Advisor to Four American Presidents: JASTA will Harm the U.S. | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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U.S. President Obama with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman. Jonathan Ernst/REUTERS


Washington, Dubai – Bruce Riedel, prominent American researcher and senior advisor to four U.S. presidents since Georges Bush the father, said that the United States would be harmed by the consequences of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA).

In an article published on the website of Brookings Institution for public policy research, Riedel said that JASTA bill will “haunt U.S.-Saudi relations for years.”

He noted that the enactment of JASTA is a “reflection of the growing weakness of America’s oldest alliance in the Middle East that goes well beyond 9/11.”

“The biggest loser will be the next president of the United States who will inherit a poisoned partnership, which she will need to help manage the region’s chaos and to fight terror,” Riedel said, stressing that the U.S. Congress has passed JASTA despite two congressionally-mandated independent investigations in 2004 and 2015 that concluded that the Saudi government had no role in al-Qaeda’s plot to attack America on September 11, 2001.

Meanwhile, a senior official at the U.S. State Department told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper on Wednesday that the new law would have negative consequences on the U.S. interests in the world.

“We feel disappointed with the Congress’ disregard to President Barack Obama’s veto of JASTA enactment,” the senior official said, stressing that this law would have many dangerous and negatives repercussions on the American international relations.

In comments to Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Middle East and Central Asia Director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Masood Ahmed, said that JASTA would have economic repercussions, adding that the IMF was currently studying the effects of the new law on the international economy.

Last month, the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly rejected Obama’s veto of legislation allowing relatives of the victims of the September 11 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia’s Government.

The final vote was 97-1 against the veto.

“This is the single most embarrassing thing this United States’ Senate has done possibly since 1983,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters following the Senate vote.