The Taliban have dismissed the idea of any return to Afghanistan by the US military after US President Donald Trump said Washington is seeking to regain control of Bagram airbase.
The facility, located in Parwan province in Afghanistan's east, was abandoned by the US as part of a chaotic withdrawal in 2021 as the Taliban overran the nation.
Mr Trump said on Thursday during a press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer that "we're trying to get it back". He said its location near China was strategic. "It's an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons," he added.
“It’s one of the most powerful bases in the world in terms of runway strength and length. You can land anything on there. You can land a planet on top of it.”
The President suggested that Washington could acquire the base with some kind of Taliban consent, but Zakir Jalal, an Afghan Foreign Ministry official, was quick to dismiss the suggestion. “The Afghans have not accepted a military presence in history," Mr Jalal wrote in a post on X. He added that "this possibility has been completely rejected".
"Afghanistan and the United States need to engage with one another ... without the United States maintaining any military presence in any part of Afghanistan," he said.
Bagram was the main base for American forces in Afghanistan during two decades of war that followed the 9/11 attacks by Al Qaeda. It once hosted fast-food restaurants including Burger King and Pizza Hut, as well as shops selling electronics and Afghan rugs.
But Washington's forces pulled out of Afghanistan in 2021 as a US-backed government collapsed. The messy retreat saw a suicide bomber kill at least 170 people outside Kabul airport as thousands of Afghans converged on the site seeking a way out of the country, fearing Taliban rule.
A US official told Reuters that retaking and holding the base would require tens of thousands of troops, while resupplying it would be difficult. "I don't see how this can realistically happen," the official said.
The base would also need to be defended from various threats, including ISIS and Al Qaeda militants. It could be vulnerable to missile attacks from Iran, which targeted a major US airbase in Qatar in June during the 12-day war with Israel.
Mr Trump has heavily criticised his predecessor Joe Biden for surrendering the Bagram airbase, even though Mr Trump set the terms for the US withdrawal by negotiating a deal with the Taliban during his first term in power. The Pentagon is currently carrying out a review into the 2021 withdrawal.
