Taliban Responds To Trump Push To Reclaim Bagram Air Base

The Taliban on Sunday responded toย President Trumpโsย pushย toย regain controlย of Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, saying the U.S. should adopt โa policy of realism and rationalityโ while rejecting the move.
โIt has been consistently communicated to the United States in all bilateral negotiations that, for the Islamic Emirate, Afghanistanโs independence and territorial integrity are of the utmost importance,โ 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 โ which Trump aides negotiated in his first term to end the U.S. presence in Afghanistan โ not to โuse or threaten force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Afghanistan, nor interfere in its internal affairs.โ
Trump in recent days has suggested the U.S. wants to wrest back control of Bagram Air Base.
โIf Afghanistan doesnโt give Bagram Airbase back to those that built it, the United States of America, BAD THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN!!!,โ Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Saturday.

During a joint press conference in Great Britain with that countryโs prime minister, Trump said the U.S. was โtrying to get it backโ because the Taliban needed things from the United States.
He also highlighted the baseโs proximity to China.
โWe gave it to them for nothing,โ 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.
โWeโre trying to get it back, by the way. OK, that could be a little breaking news. Weโre trying to get it back because they need things from us.
โWe want that base back. But one of the reasons we want the base is, as you know, itโs an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons.
โSo a lot of things are happening.โ
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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 theย Bidenย administration withdrew U.S. forces from Afghanistan.












