Trump says would consider halting Saudi oil purchases

Trump says

WASHINGTON, March 27, (Agencies): Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump told the New York Times he would consider stopping US oil purchases from Saudi Arabia unless the Saudi government provide troops to fight Islamic State.

Trump’s comment on Friday was included in a lengthy foreign policy interview published by the newspaper on Saturday and came in response to a question about whether, if elected president, he would halt oil purchases from US allies unless they provided onthe-ground forces against Islamic State.

“The answer is, probably yes,” Trump said, according to a transcript.

Trump has said the United States should be reimbursed by the countries it provides protection, even those with vast resources such as Saudi Arabia, a top oil exporter.

“And yet, without us, Saudi Arabia wouldn’t exist for very long,” Trump told the Times.

“... We’re not being reimbursed for the kind of tremendous service that we’re performing by protecting various countries. Now Saudi Arabia’s one of them.”

Trump also named in the interview retired Major General Gary Harrell, Major General Bert Mizusawa and retired Rear Admiral Charles Kubic as additional foreign policy advisors to the five named earlier this week who were criticized as obscure.

Trump has faced questions about his reluctance to reveal who was advising his campaign. He told the Times he

was willing to rethink traditional US alliances should he become president.

Trump described his foreign policy as an “America first” approach that will stop the US from being systematically “ripped off,” he said in the interview.

The phone interview with the New York Times was the most in-depth discussion so far on foreign policy for the Republican frontrunner who has spent his entire career in business.

Trump said he was not an isolationist, but described the United States as a poor debtor nation that disproportionately funds international alliances such as NATO and the United Nations.

Similarly lopsided relationships exist with allies such as Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia, he said.

“We have been disrespected, mocked and ripped off for many many years by people that were smarter, shrewder, tougher,” he told the Times.

“So America first, yes, we will not be ripped off anymore. We’re going to be friendly with everybody, but we’re not going to be taken advantage of by anybody,” he said.

Asked if Japan should be allowed to have nuclear weapons to protect itself from North Korea, Trump suggested that would be an acceptable situation.

“Would I rather have North Korea have them with Japan sitting there having them also? You may very well be better off if that’s the case.” he said.

Trump also said he would withdraw US troops from Japan and South Korea unless the two Asian countries significantly increased their contributions to Washington for the military presence.

“We cannot afford to be losing vast amounts of billions of dollars on all of this,” he said.

He then slammed President Barack Obama’s administration for seeking a political exit for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad while simultaneously fighting the Islamic State group as “madness and idiocy.”

“I’m not saying Assad is a good man, ‘cause he’s not, but our far greater problem is not Assad, it’s ISIS,” he said.

The real estate developer said he would instead target the oil that provides a significant portion of the extremist group’s funding, cracking down on underground banking channels to cut off the flow of money.