<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">KABUL: An Afghan government defence official said Sunday that a deal over Bagram air base was &quot;not possible&quot;, after US President Donald Trump said he wanted the former US base back. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bagram, the largest air base in Afghanistan, located north of the capital Kabul, was the centre of US operations in their 20-year war against the Taliban. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trump threatened unspecified punishment against Afghanistan if it was not returned &mdash; four years after the US troops abandoned it. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&quot;If Afghanistan doesn&#39;t give Bagram Airbase back to those that built it, the United States of America, BAD THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN!!!&quot; the 79-year-old leader wrote on his Truth Social platform. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On Sunday, Fasihuddin Fitrat, chief of staff of Afghanistan&#39;s Ministry of Defence, said &quot;some people&quot; want to take back the base through a &quot;political deal&quot;. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&quot;Recently, some people have said that they have entered negotiations with Afghanistan for taking back Bagram air base,&quot; he said in comments broadcast by local media. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&quot;A deal over even an inch of Afghanistan&#39;s soil is not possible. We don&#39;t need it.&quot; <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Later, in an official statement, the Afghan government said that &quot;Afghanistan&#39;s independence and territorial integrity are of the utmost importance.&quot; <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trump has repeatedly criticized the loss of the base, noting its proximity to China. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But Thursday, on a state visit to Britain, was the first time he publicly sought control of the air base. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The US and the NATO troops chaotically pulled out of Bagram in July 2021, under Joe Biden&#39;s presidency, but as part of a 2020 Trump-brokered deal with Taliban insurgents. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The loss of crucial air power saw the Afghan military collapse just weeks later, and the Taliban regained power. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reporters asked Trump at the White House if he was considering sending US troops to retake Bagram. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&quot;We won&#39;t talk about that, but we&#39;re talking now to Afghanistan, and we want it back and we want it back soon, right away. And if they don&#39;t do it, you&#39;re going to find out what I&#39;m going to do,&quot; he said. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A massive, sprawling facility, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and others have repeatedly raised allegations of systematic human rights abuses by US forces at Bagram, especially on detainees in Washington&#39;s murky &quot;War on Terror&quot;. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The original airfield was built with assistance from what was then the Soviet Union in the early 1950s, expanded with US help during the Cold War, and significantly developed further by Moscow during the decade-long Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the height of US control around 2010, it had grown to the size of a small town, with supermarkets and shops including outlets such as Dairy Queen and Burger King. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was visited by several US presidents, including Barack Obama in 2012 and Trump in 2019.

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Trump says he wants it back right away, and everyone will soon find out what it will do in case of refusal.

Articles tagged with "US Afghanistan"

US deal on Bagram base 'not possible': Afghan Taliban