The Saudi Arabian foreign minister has  warned the United States  not to pass a proposed law  that could hold the kingdom liable for damages related to the September 11, 2001 attacks. Saudi foreign minister Abdel Al-Jubeir said in Geneva that, “We say a law like this would cause an erosion of investor confidence.”

“We say a law like this would cause an erosion of investor confidence. But then to kind of say, ‘My God the Saudis are threatening us’ ridiculous,” Al Jubeir said.

“We don’t use monetary policy and we don’t use energy policy and we don’t use economic policy for political purposes. When we invest, we invest as investors. When we sell oil, we sell oil as traders.” Al Jubeir, pressed on whether Saudi Arabia had suggested the law could affect its investment policies, said that,  “I say you can warn. What has happened is that people are saying we threatened. We said that a law like this is going to cause investor confidence to shrink. And so not just for Saudi Arabia, but for everybody.”

“In fact what they are doing is stripping the principle of sovereign immunities which would turn the world for international law into the law of the jungle,” he said.

“That’s why the administration is opposed to it, and that’s why every country in the world is opposed to it. And then people say ‘Saudi Arabia is threatening the US by pulling our investments’. Nonsense,” he added.

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Nandini