Afghanistan rules out handing over Bagram to US after Trump's threat
The interim government in Afghanistan says a deal on Bagram is “not possible,” after US President Donald Trump threatened Kabul with consequences unless it gives back control of the country’s largest airbase.
Trump said Saturday that “bad things are going to happen” if Kabul does not return the airbase to those who built it.
Bagram, the largest air base in Afghanistan, located north of the capital Kabul, was the main base for US forces during the two decades of war that ended with Washington’s chaotic withdrawal and the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.
Four years on, Trump claims that Washington has had conversations with Afghan officials about the airbase and that Kabul could be open to allowing the US military back.
Fasihuddin Fitrat, chief of staff of Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense, ruled out any deal over the base on Sunday, saying, “A deal over even an inch of Afghanistan’s soil is not possible. We don’t need it.”
Later, in an official statement, the chief Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, rejected Trump’s assertions and urged Washington to adopt a policy of “realism and rationality.”
He said in a post on X that Afghanistan had an economy-oriented foreign policy and sought constructive relations with all states on the basis of mutual and shared interests.
Mujahid said Kabul had consistently communicated to the US in all bilateral negotiations that “Afghanistan’s independence and territorial integrity are of the utmost importance.”
According to him, under the Doha Agreement, signed between the US and the Taliban in 2020 in Qatar’s capital, Washington “pledged that ‘it will not use or threaten force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Afghanistan, nor interfere in its internal affairs.’”
Mujahid said the US needs to remain faithful to its commitments.
Trump has, for the first time, publicly raised the idea of the United States retaking control of Bagram during his state visit to Britain on Thursday.
“We’re trying to get it back, by the way, that could be a little breaking news. We’re trying to get it back because they need things from us,” he said at a news conference with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
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