President Donald Trump said Thursday he is working to regain American possession of Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan.
Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivered a joint press conference at the Chequers Estate during Trump’s final stop on his state visit to the United Kingdom. Trump revealed his effort to bring the air base, which the United States forfeited to the Taliban during the Biden administration’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal, back under American control.
“We’re trying to get it back, by the way, okay? That could be a little breaking news. We’re trying to get it back because they need things from us. We want that base back,” Trump said.
“But one of the reasons we want the base is, as you know, it’s an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons. So a lot of things are happening,” he added.
In July 2021, the Biden administration handed Bagram over to the Afghan government in the lead-up to the calamitous U.S. military withdrawal. The U.S. had occupied the base for almost 20 years throughout the Afghanistan War when U.S. forces suddenly withdrew at night, unbeknownst to Afghan military officials. Looters subsequently ransacked the base.
Trump’s remarks come days after a White House delegation, led by Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs Adam Boehler, met over the weekend with senior Taliban leaders, who expressed a desire for normalized relations, Afghan media reported.
“After the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan, there are no serious obstacles in bilateral relations that cannot be resolved,” Zakir Jalali, who Afghanistan’s Tolo News identifies as a “third political director” in the Taliban’s Foreign Ministry, said on Sunday.
“The fact that the U.S. delegation has opened its doors to Kabul marks a new and more serious phase in continuing negotiations,” Jalali said per the outlets.
Longtime American representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad accompanied Boehler on the trip. The American delegation focused on negotiating the release of Americans who are stuck under the rule of jihadists, per multiple reports.
Read the full article here