Holding the Jordan-based Arab Bank liable for damages caused to the victims of terror attacks could deal a blow to legitimate banking operations in the Middle East and could negatively affect American interests in the region, an attorney for the bank argued Tuesday before a federal appeals court.

But the panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that heard about 90 minutes of oral arguments in the long-running case Linde v. Arab Bank, 04-cv-2799, repeatedly questioned why they should rule on the arguments in the case considering that the parties have entered into a settlement agreement stipulating that the court's ruling would end the litigation.

“We don't sit here to provide opinions to fit into some settlement agreement that the parties have,” said Southern District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who sat on the panel by designation.