In a severe threat to Afghanistan, US President Donald Trump has called for the restoration of the Bagram air base to the US.
Trump said, “If Afghanistan doesn’t give Bagram Airbase back to those that built it, the United States of America, bad things are going to happen,” in a post on his social media account, Truth Social.
Trump has reaffirmed Washington’s efforts to retake the base, which served as a vital operating center for US forces after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, he affirmed that talks were in progress with Afghanistan on the issue.
After American forces left Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban seized control of the Bagram Air Base, which had previously been the biggest US military facility there.
The Taliban government, however, has condemned Trump’s comments regarding Bagram.
Afghans never accept foreign military presence in their nation, according to a top Afghan official who criticized the US President’s comments on recapturing Bagram airbase on Saturday, according to the state-run Radio and Television of Afghanistan (RTA).
“Throughout history, Afghans have never tolerated the presence of a foreign military on their territory. According to Xinhua news agency, the state-owned media source quoted Jalali, a senior diplomat in the foreign ministry, as stating, “Afghanistan and America need engagement on economic and political relations based on bilateral respect and common interests.”
Trump told reporters in London on Thursday that “We want to retake it.” Trump has been scolding his predecessor Joe Biden for ceding Bagram Airbase during the US pullout in August 2021.
During the 20-year military presence of US-led military coalition forces in Afghanistan, which ended in August 2021 and cleared the path for the fall of the western-backed forces and the current Afghan regime to seize power, the Bagram airbase, located 50 kilometers north of Kabul, had been the primary military base for US troops in Afghanistan.
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