Taliban rejects Trump’s demand for control of Bagram air base in Afghanistan

The Taliban government in Afghanistan on Sunday rejected United States President Donald Trump’s demand to retake control of the Bagram airbase, the Associated Press reported.

The US military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 had left the airbase, located 60 km north of Kabul, in Taliban’s control.

On Saturday, Trump had said that the US wanted to re-establish its control of Bagram. The US president had said that his administration was “talking now to Afghanistan” about the matter.

He had not provided details about the talks with the Taliban government.

“We want it back, and we want it back soon, right away,” Trump had told reporters. “If they don’t do it, you’re going to find out what I’m going to do.”

In a social media post, Trump said that “bad things are going to happen” if Afghanistan does not give the Bagram airbase back “to those that built it, the United States of America”.

On Sunday, the Taliban government said that it had consistently communicated to Washington that “independence and territorial integrity are of the utmost importance” to Afghanistan.

Deputy Spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat urged the US to adopt a policy of “realism and rationality”.

The Taliban said that under the 2020 Doha Agreement, the US had promised that “it will not use or threaten force against the territorial integrity or political independence of...

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