The Taliban on Sunday responded to President Trump’s push to regain control of Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, saying the U.S. should adopt “a policy of realism and rationality” while rejecting the move.
“It has been consistently communicated to the United States in all bilateral negotiations that, for the Islamic Emirate, Afghanistan’s independence and territorial integrity are of the utmost importance,” Taliban deputy spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat said in an official statement posted on the social platform X.
Fitrat pointed to U.S. commitments under the Doha agreement — which Trump aides negotiated in his first term to end the U.S. presence in Afghanistan — not to “use or threaten force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Afghanistan, nor interfere in its internal affairs.”
Trump in recent days has suggested the U.S. wants to wrest back control of Bagram Air Base.
“If Afghanistan doesn’t give Bagram Airbase back to those that built it, the United States of America, BAD THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN!!!,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Saturday.
During a joint press conference in Great Britain with that country’s prime minister, Trump said the U.S. was “trying to get it back” because the Taliban needed things from the United States.
He also highlighted the base’s proximity to China.
“We gave it to them for nothing,” Trump said, repeating a campaign message on the Biden-era unconditional withdrawal from Afghanistan, during a joint news conference with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
“We’re trying to get it back, by the way. OK, that could be a little breaking news. 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.
“So a lot of things are happening.”
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Bagram was once the largest U.S. base in Afghanistan during the U.S. war in that country, the longest conflict in American history. It was abandoned in 2021 when the Biden administration withdrew U.S. forces from Afghanistan.
