Trump: If Afghanistan does not return Bagram Air Base, something “bad” will happen
US President Donald Trump threatened on Saturday that something “bad” would happen if Afghanistan did not return control of Bagram Air Base to the United States, and did not rule out sending troops to recapture the base.
“If Afghanistan does not return Bagram Air Base to those who built it, namely the United States of America, BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN,” Trump wrote in a post on the social network Truth Social.
Trump said on Thursday that the United States had tried to regain control of the base, which American forces had used after the September 11, 2001 attacks. On Friday, he told reporters that he was negotiating with Afghanistan about it.
The withdrawal of U.S. forces in 2021 led to the takeover of U.S. bases and the overthrow of the U.S.-backed government in Kabul by the Islamist Taliban movement.
Afghan officials have spoken out against a resumption of the US presence.
Current and former US officials warn behind closed doors that reoccupying the Bagram air base in Afghanistan could look like a renewed invasion of the country, requiring more than 10,000 troops and the deployment of advanced air defense systems.
Trump, who has previously stated that he wants the United States to acquire territories and locations from the Panama Canal to Greenland, appears to have been fixated on Bagram for years.
When asked on Saturday whether he would send American soldiers to reoccupy the base, Trump refused to give a direct answer, saying, “We're not going to talk about that.”
“We are currently negotiating with Afghanistan and want them back, as soon as possible, immediately. And if they don't do that — if they don't do that, you'll see what I'm going to do,” he told reporters at the White House.
The sprawling airport was the main base for U.S. forces in Afghanistan during the two-decade war that followed the September 11, 2001, attacks by al-Qaeda in New York and Washington.
The base once had fast-food restaurants such as Burger King and Pizza Hut that catered to American soldiers, as well as shops selling everything from electronics to Afghan carpets. It also housed a huge prison complex.
Experts say that securing the huge air base would be difficult at first and that its operation and protection would require an enormous workforce.
Even if the Taliban were to accept renewed occupation of Bagram by the United States after negotiations, it would have to be protected from a variety of threats, including militant fighters from the Islamic State and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.