Congress sends Riyadh 'signal' with vote to allow terror lawsuits

Congress voted overwhelmingly Sept. 28 to allow lawsuits against Saudi Arabia, capping the worst month the kingdom has had on Capitol Hill since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

While debate centered around getting justice for the victims' family members, lawmakers of both parties said growing frustration with Riyadh played a role in the lopsided vote to override President Barack Obama's veto. The outcome was 97-1 in the Senate, 348-77 in the House.

"I think that this bill got a 97-1 vote in part because of specific concerns about Saudi policy in the Middle East," said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations panel on the Middle East. "Right now the way in which this war is going inside Yemen, the continued export of Wahhabism, has a lot of people concerned. And the Saudis are seeing that concern come out in a number of different ways."

Murphy was a driving force behind last week's effort to block a $1.15 billion arms sale linked to Saudi Arabia's intervention in Yemen. While the rare Senate floor vote failed 71-27, it was a symbolic rebuke for a US ally engaged in a war against Houthi militias backed by Iran, a US foe.