Arab News exclusive: Congress ‘not likely to override veto on 9/11 Bill’

John Duke Anthony, founding president and CEO of the National Council on US-Arab Relations (NCUSAR), told Arab News in an exclusive interview on Wednesday that he doesn’t think the US Congress has the vote to override President Obama’s expected veto against the congressional resolution that allows the families of the victims of Sept. 11 attacks to sue the Saudi government
“I do not think so, because the better argument will prevail and if necessary, the president and the secretary of state would have to go on national television in order to explain how dangerous this will be if Congress does that,” he said.
He said Israel and its allies in Washington have been, for the last 60 years, trying to block any good news about Saudi Arabia and trying to disseminate only negative information about the Kingdom.
“This is why these speeches of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Naif at the UN are very important,” he said. “They inform people about what the Kingdom is doing on the world stage.”
He said: “The speeches of the crown prince are very welcomed because they inform the world that Saudi Arabia received two-and-half million Syrian refugees since the beginning of the conflict.”

“The Kingdom provided complete support to the hosting countries in the region; it also provided free education to 141,000 Syrian and 285,000 Yemeni students ... That Saudi Arabia is the third country in the world in terms of providing assistance to the refugees and that in the last four decades alone, Saudi Arabia donated $139 million for this cause. People do not know these facts because the negative campaign against the Kingdom does not allow any good news about Saudi Arabia to be known.”
To a question on why don’t people in the West know how much Saudi Arabia has supported the Syrian refugees, he said: “Concerning Syria, the Western media is using the legalistic definition of ‘refugees,’ which means that those refugees should be in a camp and that they must to be officially recorded with the United Nations. Saudi Arabia approaches the issue of refugees from a different and creative way; it provided those refugees homes where they can stay with dignity, and it allows them to work and earn an income so they can support their families. It also gives them access to school and free education, so the children do not have to stay in a camp all day but instead they can get an education. So because the Syrian refugees in Saudi Arabia do not show up in the accounting of the UN records, people say Saudi Arabia did not take any Syrian refugees. This is not true — Saudi Arabia has taken 2.5 million Syrian refugees.” The Saudi stand is that Assad should not be part of the transition in Syria. Now the US-Russian agreement seems to signal that Washington accepts Moscow’s approach that Assad will be part of the transition. Would this affect the relations between the US and the Kingdom?
John Duke Anthony’s answer was: “I would like to think that there are real statesmen on both sides to seek, secure and sustain the higher ground; that is meant to stop the slaughter; no more killings and dispossessing people of their dreams. This should be the higher strategic goal. In order to achieve that, one has to be creative and not only think out of the box but also to act out of the box. If achieving that goal would take an agreement between Washington and Moscow, so let it be. If it requires America to change its views about Assad having to go, or Riyadh has to change its views that Assad has to go, so let it be. Yes, Assad is part of the problem, but he could also be a part of the solution. We have now to concentrate on the strategic goal of stopping the slaughter.”
On whether these differences hinder Saudi-American relations, he said: “No, we do not have a choice, and they do not have a choice; they are the captain of a team of 1.6 billion people on this plant; they are a leader among the Arab states and we have interest with these countries. We invested 80 years in this relationship; and one would be a fool if he throws all that away.”

Source: Arab News