Trump tweets approval of Saudi corruption arrests

By Safvan Allahverdi

WASHINGTON

U.S. President Donald Trump has appeared to welcome Saudi monarch King Salman's recent decision to arrest dozens of princes, government officials and business leaders in the kingdom.

"I have great confidence in King Salman and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, they know exactly what they are doing," Trump said in a series of tweets late on Monday.

On Saturday, Saudi authorities detained 11 princes, four sitting ministers and a dozen of former ministers in a massive anti-corruption sweep.

Saudi media said billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and National Guard Prince Miteb bin Abdullah were among those detained.

"Some of those they are harshly treating have been 'milking' their country for " Trump claimed.

The arrests came hours after an anti-corruption committee, under Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, was formed by a royal decree.

According to the official SPA news agency, the anti-corruption has the authority to investigate, arrest, ban from travel, disclose and freeze accounts and portfolios, track funds and assets of individuals involved in corruption.

The committee has already announced that it would reopen the case of the 2009 Jeddah floods in which more than 100 people died, and investigate the outbreak of the , also known as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2012.