U.S. President Donald Trump recently said that Washington is "trying to take back" Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. However, Afghan officials swiftly rejected the idea, saying there will be no negotiation on this matter, APA reports citing Xinhua.
The remark has drawn wide international attention and prompted speculation about whether the United States intends to deploy troops to Afghanistan again. Analysts say that re-establishing a full U.S. military presence -- especially at Bagram -- would be extraordinarily difficult and is not currently feasible.
AFGHANISTAN EXCLUDES U.S. MILITARY RETURN
The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that the United States might be discussing with the Afghan government a limited U.S. counter-terrorism presence at the Bagram airbase.
Zakir Jalaly, political director of the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that Afghans have never accepted foreign troops on their territory and that any dialogue with Washington must exclude a U.S. military return.
Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid, Afghan defense minister, told Al Jazeera on Thursday that during the Doha peace talks before the U.S. withdrawal, American negotiators asked for a base in Afghanistan.
"Our answer was, if you don't leave and want bases, we are ready to fight you for another 20 years," he said.
CURRENT STATUS OF BAGRAM AIRBASE
About 50 km north of Kabul, the Bagram airbase was the hub of U.S. and NATO operations during two decades of war. With two runways over 3 km long, the base was capable of handling fighter jets, bombers and heavy transports.
The Taliban regained the base in August 2021, after U.S.-led forces abruptly left overnight.
Wang Erfeng, associate researcher of Lanzhou University's Afghanistan Studies Center, said Trump's remark reflects his intention to bolster his own tough-on-foreign-policy image to energize domestic supporters, while criticizing what he sees as former President Joe Biden's rushed and flawed withdrawal from Afghanistan.
DOUBTS OVER RETAKING BAGRAM
Trump said it "could be a little breaking news" that "we're trying to get it (Bagram) back," speaking to reporters at an event in Britain.
Media reports quoted several U.S. officials saying that regaining Bagram would amount to a new occupation of Afghanistan, requiring tens of thousands of troops, costly repairs and a complex supply chain to an isolated inland site.
Afghan political analyst Idris Mohammadi Zazi argued that Washington, after losing the war, has launched a new "information offensive" to undermine Afghanistan's political and economic systems. In his view, Trump's statement of reclaiming the airbase is a political show and propaganda, not a workable military plan.
"The Afghan government and people do not accept even an inch of Afghan land for foreign military presence," Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said in July.
