Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump claims that Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states should pay protection money to the U.S. for their military support against the Islamic State. He said that the US could stop purchasing their oil unless they reimbursed Washington for its military efforts against ISIS or send ground troops to join the fight. The Republican front-runner for the White House gave a foreign policy interview to the New York Times, saying US presidents should have “gone to the beach” instead of meddling in the Middle East. Talking about Saudi Arabia being under the cloak of American protection, the Donald said: “I don’t think it would be around. It would be, you know, a catastrophic failure without our protection.” Middle East Eye reports: In an interview with the New York Times published on Saturday, Trump, the outspoken outsider who leads the race to be the Republican candidate in November’s election, suggested that Saudi Arabia would not exist without “the cloak of American protection”. Trump also suggested that the US would have been better off in the Middle East if US President Barack Obama and his predecessor George W Bush had “gone to the beach” for the past 15 [...]