A defense manager of the Afghan government said on Sunday that an agreement on Bagram air base was “not possible”, after US President Donald Trump said he wanted the former American base to return.
Bagram, the largest air base in Afghanistan located north of the capital Kabul, was the center of American operations in their 20 years against the Taliban.
Trump threatened unpertified sanctions against Afghanistan if she was not returned – four years after being abandoned by American troops.
“If Afghanistan does not make Bagram air base to those who built it, the United States of America, bad things will happen !!!” The 79-year-old leader wrote on his social platform Truth.
Find out more: Pakistan, Taliban, Bagram and changing geopolitics
Sunday, Fasihuddin Fitrat, chief of staff of the Ministry of Defense of Afghanistan, said that “some people” wanted to resume the base with a “political agreement”.
“Recently, some people said they had entered into negotiations with Afghanistan for resuming Bagram air base,” he said in local media comments.
“An agreement on even an inch of Afghanistan soil is not possible. We don’t need it.”
Later in an official press release, the Afghan government said that “the independence and territorial integrity of Afghanistan were of the utmost importance”.
Trump repeatedly criticized the loss of the base, noting his proximity to China.
But Thursday during a state visit to Great Britain was the first time that he publicly raised the idea that the United States has regained control.
American and NATO troops were chaotically withdrew from Bagram in July 2021, under the chairmanship of Joe Biden, but as part of a Trump agreement in 2020 with Taliban insurgents.
The loss of crucial air power saw the Afghan army collapse a few weeks later and the Taliban gets back in power.
Read also: Trump warns “bad things” if Bagram air base has not been transmitted
Journalists asked Trump of the White House if he planned to send American troops to take Bagram.
“We are not talking about that, but we are now talking about Afghanistan, and we want it and we want it soon, right away. And if they don’t do it, you will discover what I’m going to do,” he said.
A massive and sprawling installation, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and others have repeatedly raised allegations of systematic human rights violations by American forces in Bagram, in particular concerning detainees in Washington’s “war against terrorism”.
The original aerodrome was built with the help of what was the Soviet Union in the early 1950s, extended with American aid during the Cold War, and developed significantly by Moscow during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan for a decade.
At the height of American control around 2010, he had reached the size of a small town, with supermarkets and shops, including points of sale such as Dairy Queen and Burger King.
He was visited by several American presidents including Barrack Obama in 2012 and Trump in 2019.
