The Taliban government has rejected US President Donald Trump’s bid to retake Bagram Air Base, four years after America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan left the sprawling military facility in the Taliban’s hands. Mr Trump on Saturday renewed his call to re-establish a US presence at Bagram, even saying “we’re talking now to Afghanistan” about the matter.
He did not offer further details about the purported conversations. Asked by a reporter if he would consider deploying US troops to take the base, Mr Trump demurred. “We won’t talk about that,” Mr Trump said. “We want it back, and we want it back right away. If they don’t do it, you’re going to find out what I’m going to do.”
On Sunday, chief Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid rejected Mr Trump’s assertions and urged the US to adopt a policy of “realism and rationality”.
Mujahid posted a defiant message on X in which he insisted that the position of Afghanistan had been consistently communicated to Washington.
He said: “It has been consistently communicated to the U.S. in all bilateral negotiations that Afghanistan’s independence and territorial integrity were of the utmost importance, he said.
“It should be recalled that, under the Doha Agreement, the United States pledged that ‘it will not use or threaten force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Afghanistan, nor interfere in its internal affairs.”
The U.S. needed to remain faithful to its commitments, he added.
Earlier Sunday, the chief of staff at the Defence Ministry, Fasihuddin Fitrat, reiterated the message.
He said: “Ceding even an inch of our soil to anyone is out of the question and impossible,” he said during a speech broadcast by Afghan media.
US President Donald Trump said he is trying to get Bagram air base in Afghanistan back.
He told reporters: “One of the biggest air bases in the world. We gave it to them for nothing. We’re trying to get it back, by the way.”
“We’re trying to get it back because they need things from us. We want that base back. But one of the reasons we want the base is, as you know, it’s an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons,” he added.
