News / Foreign Policy

Saudi Arabia faces $6 billion US lawsuit by Sept. 11 insurers

Friday, 24 March 2017 4:31 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 24 March 2017 6:27 PM ]

World Trade Center complex in New York City, September, 11, 2011. (File Photo)

Saudi Arabia is facing a $6 billion lawsuit by dozens of American insurance companies which are trying to hold Riyadh responsible for business and property damage caused by the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The lawsuit filed in the US District Court in Manhattan on Thursday is the latest effort to hold the kingdom accountable for the attacks which killed nearly 3,000 people -- mostly Americans -- and caused about $10 billion in property and infrastructure damage.

Other lawsuits include those filed on Monday by families of about 800 attack victims, as well as the 1,500 injured people after responding to the New York attack.

Insurance companies, including Liberty Mutual, Safeco, Wausau and many Lloyd's syndicates, blamed Saudi Arabia for providing funding and other material support to al-Qaeda terrorists, who they said, carried out the attacks.

US President Donald Trump had also said that he would allow families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia in America.

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‘800 of 9/11 victims suing Saudi Arabia’

Until last month, the insurers had been appealing dismissal of their case by US District Judge George Daniels in Manhattan, who had overseen many September 11 lawsuits, in 2015.

In September, the US Congress made an effort to override then-President Barack Obama’s veto of Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), which clears the path to sue Riyadh for the 9/11 attacks.

President Barack Obama shakes hands with Saudi Arabia's King Salman at the start of a bilateral meeting at Erga Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2015. (Photo by Reuters)

But the appeal was vacated after Saudi Arabia, the insurers and other plaintiffs agreed in a joint court filing that JASTA “was intended to apply” to their cases, and that Daniels should review its impact.

Recently, veterans have said they have been tricked into taking Saudi-funded luxury trips to Washington in order to lobby lawmakers in Congress to scrap the JASTA, according to the New York Post.

Of the 19 hijackers who allegedly carried out the 9/11 attacks, 15 were Saudi nationals and available evidence suggests some of them were linked to high-ranking Saudi officials.Yet, many experts have raised questions about the official account. They believe that rogue elements within the US government orchestrated the 9/11 attacks in order to accelerate the US war machine and advance the Zionist agenda.

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