Taliban pours cold water on Trump’s plan to take 'back' strategic air base
U.S. President Donald Trump reacts during an event to announce that the Space Force Command will move from Colorado to Alabama, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 2, 2025.
The New York Times reports Taliban officials are slapping aside suggestions by President Donald Trump that the United States might regain control of the Bagram Air Base, in Afghanistan.
“We’re trying to get it back because they need things from us,” Trump told reporters at a Thursday news conference with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Bagram was the last base the U.S. abandoned during its withdrawal from Afghanistan, but Trump said that it was strategically important because “it’s an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons.”
Taliban forces reclaimed the base after the U.S. pulled out in 2021, and Taliban leaders suggest they will not welcome the return of U.S. security personnel to the base.
“Without the U.S. having any military presence in Afghanistan, both Afghanistan and the U.S. need to engage with each other, and they can have political and economic relations based on mutual respect and shared interests,” said Zakir Jalaly, an Afghan foreign ministry official on X. “… Afghans have never accepted the military presence of anyone throughout history. But for other kinds of engagement, all paths remain open for them.”
Jalaly hinted that Trump should instead use his compromise skills, and described him as “a good businessman and negotiator, more than just a politician.”
The Times reports other Taliban officials were more critical, with Deputy Minister Muhajer Farahi posting part of a poem on X translated as describing the aftermath of two warring parties. The other guy, suggests the translation, “still has not found peace” according to the Times.
The White House ducked a request to address the Taliban’s statements. However, the Times reports Afghanistan remains “isolated on the global stage since the Taliban took control” in 2021, with the Russian government being the only international entity to recognize it.
“Its economy is struggling to attract foreign support and private investments,” Reports the Times. “And as high-level meetings at the United Nations General Assembly are set to begin on Monday, Afghanistan will once again not be represented because its officials face a U.N. travel ban.”
Read the New York Times report at this link.
