JAFFA, Israel – Riyadh has yet to issue an official response to the U.S. Senate resolution that would allow families of 9/11 victims to sue the Saudi government for any role it may have played in the attacks, but the unanimously-passed resolution has been met with sweeping condemnation on Saudi social media.
Official media in the country has focused on the potentially detrimental impact the resolution may have on US-Saudi relations and the response of the White House, which has threatened to veto the legislation.
The London-based Saudi newspaper Asharq al-Awsat said that the resolution “undermines the policy of the White House and has posed a clear risk to U.S.-Saudi relations, as well as Saudi investments in the US.”
The paper claimed that a secret investigation yielded no indication that the Saudi government was involved in the notorious terror attack in any way.
Al Hayat, another Saudi-owned London newspaper, reported that Saudi Arabia condemned the resolution and threatened to withdraw $750 billion in investments. This is the estimated worth of American bonds that Riyadh bought in 2008 during the economic downturn.
The Al Watan newspaper focused on the White House response, which said that “the bill may open the door to anti-US legislation elsewhere, including implicating American soldiers and officials in war crimes allegations.”
The Okaz newspaper downplayed the importance of the resolution, reporting that “Washington pundits have insisted that it still needs to be upheld by the House of Representatives” and “President Obama has said that he may choose to exercise his presidential veto.”
Other Saudi papers reviewed by Breitbart Jerusalem ignored the story altogether.
However, Saudi social media was buzzing with condemnation, while anti-Saudi Shi’ites rejoiced.
Faysal Maymony, a Saudi legal scholar, tweeted: “The reliance on the prospect of a presidential veto is not nearly close to what Saudi Arabia could have achieved by taking proactive steps.”
He later tweeted: “The passing of the bill is testament to an ongoing American effort to undermine Saudi Arabia’s standing.”
“The American policy, having succeeded in turning Iran into an American proxy in the region, seeks to do the same with Saudi Arabia,” he added.
Jamal Khashoggi, CEO of the Al Arab network and an associate of Saudi Prince Walid bin Talal, tweeted: “It’s a dangerous development that puts the bilateral relations at risk.” Khashoggi’s many followers concurred with him that the Americans cannot be trusted.
Mohammed wrote: “It’s been said that those who cover themselves with America end up naked. The kingdom has to move from empty rhetoric to serious reprisal.”
“This is the beginning of a tsunami that would affect every Saudi dollar invested in the US,” Hamed tweeted.
Jaffer Alawi, a top Shi’ite leader in neighboring Bahrain, wrote that “this is the first step in our journey to depose this terrorist regime,” referring to the Saudi royal family.
Hani Hussein, a Shi’ite Iraqi lawyer, tweeted: “How interesting… We have yet to hear an official response to the resolution… Does this quiet signify acquiescence, or is it just a bit of quiet before the storm?”
https://twitter.com/hani_lawyer/status/732659583068561416
Saudi twitterati launched the hashtag #US_blackmails_Saudi. Muhajid wrote: “The world’s largest sponsor of terror accuses the world’s largest victim of terror of fostering terror.”
Abdullah Swilmi replied: “If you check the background to this blackmail, you’ll find that our media supported it when our society was accused of supporting terror.”
Abdullah Mneifi posted a picture purporting to be of an American soldier standing next to bodies of Iraqi children, and wrote: “America is a school of terror… Here’s an American soldier who enjoyed killing Iraqi children, taking a selfie.”
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