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America is a mess, Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal's last tweet before arrest

Sunday November 5, 2017 12:43 PM, ummid.com & Agencies

Al Waleed Bin Talal

Riyadh: Saudi billionaire Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal's last message posted on Twitter few hours before he was arrested reads, "America is a mess".

The message has received 53 comments, 17 retweets and 40 likes so far.

Meanwhile, an old message posted by US President Donald Trump has resurfaced on Twitter in which he is seemingly threatening Al Waleed bin Talal.

Pé Resists using Twitter handler @4everNeverTrump while re-tweeting the 2015 message by Trump, wrote:

December 11, 2015: Trump threatens @Alwaleed_Talal.

November 4, 2017: Saudi Arabia arrests Talal.

Trump's tweet posted during run up to the US President election was in response to Al Waleed bin Talal's message. Talal while advising Trump to withdraw from presdential race, had wrote, "You are a disgrace not only to the GOP but to all America. Withdraw from the U.S presidential race as you will never win."

Late in the night Saturday, Saudi Arabia arrested 11 princes, including Saudi billionaire Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, and dozens of current and former ministers in a sweeping crackdown as the kingdom's young crown prince consolidates power.

Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal's arrest has been claimed by some Saudi news websites, though there was no official confirmation. The prince was not reachable for comment, according to AFP

Separately, the head of the Saudi National Guard Miteb bin Abdullah, once a leading contender to the throne, as well as the navy chief and the economy minister were replaced in a series of high-profile sackings that sent shock waves in the kingdom.

The crackdown was reported immediately after a new anti-corruption commission, headed by powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was established by royal decree late Saturday, according to Arab News.

Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television reported that the princes, four current and dozens of former ministers were arrested as the commission launched a probe into old cases such as floods that devastated the Red Sea city of Jeddah in 2009.

State-run Saudi Press Agency said the commission's goal was to "preserve public money, punish corrupt people and those who exploit their positions".

An aviation source told AFP that security forces had grounded private jets in Jeddah, possibly to prevent any high-profile figures from leaving.

Meanwhile, the kingdom's top council of clerics tweeted that anti-corruption efforts were "as important as the fight against terrorism", essentially giving religious backing to the crackdown.

"The breadth and scale of the arrests appears to be unprecedented in modern Saudi history," said Kristian Ulrichsen, a fellow at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.

"The reported detention of Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, if true, would send shock waves through the domestic and international business community," Ulrichsen told AFP.

 

 

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