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The Taliban official rejected the idea that the US could return the key air base in Afghanistan after President Donald Trump told reporters he wanted to return it.
Zakir Jalal, who works at the Taliban foreign ministry, said the US idea supported any military presence in Afghanistan, was “completely” rejected during the talks between the two parties before the Taliban returned to power.
He came after the US president hinted at the back air base Bagram – NATO epicenter in Afghanistan for two decades – may be possible “because they need things from us.”
The base was transferred to the Afghan military shortly before the Taliban was taken under the control of Afghanistan.
Trump said at a press conference in the UK on Thursday, the United States “gave them nothing”.
The complete withdrawal of US troops was part of the transaction signed during the first Trump administration in 2020, and ended with Joe Biden in 2021.
But in March, Trump stated that he planned to keep the Bagram airbase “not from Afghanistan, but from China.”
Trump once again confirmed the importance of his location on Thursday, saying that one of the reasons to return Bagrams because “this is an hour from where China is doing its nuclear weapons.”
It is unclear what it implies: BBC checks the investigation in July that there is a nuclear test of about 2000 km in the northwest (1243 miles).
Trump has also repeatedly said that China has since established the presence in the base north of the capital, Kabul. The Taliban was denied a lawsuit.
But the investigation of the BBC – studying 30 satellite images from the end of 2020 to 2025 – revealed very little activity in the database since the Taliban has returned, and no evidence confirming the presence of China in the base.
On Friday, a press secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China said that “China respects the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Afghanistan”, adding that “the future of Afghanistan is in the hands of the Afghan people.”
Zakir Jalal with the Taliban, meanwhile, wrote on the Social Media X platform: “Throughout the history, Afghans have not accepted military presence, and such an opportunity was completely rejected during the negotiations and agreements in Doha, but the door is open to other classes.”
The US and the Taliban participated recently, although the Taliban Foreign Minister focused on the Americans held in Afghanistan on Saturday, reports Reuters.
