Trump threatens Afghanistan with "bad things" as sudden obsession with Bagram air base grows
Kabul, Afghanistan - President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened Afghanistan with "bad things" if the Taliban-controlled country did not return the Bagram air base to the US.
"If Afghanistan doesn't give Bagram Airbase back to those that built it, the United States of America, BAD THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN!!!" the 79-year-old leader wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The vague threat came just days after he raised the idea of the US retaking control of the base while on a state visit to Britain.
Bagram, the largest air base in Afghanistan, was a linchpin of the disastrous US invasion of the country after the September 11 attacks.
A massive, sprawling facility, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and others have repeatedly raised allegations of systematic human rights abuses by US forces at Bagram, especially pertaining to detainees in Washington's global "War on Terror."
Trump has often lamented the loss of access to Bagram, noting its proximity to China, but Thursday was the first time he has made public that he was working "to get it back."
US and NATO troops chaotically pulled out of Bagram in July 2021 as part of a Trump-brokered peace deal, as the resurgent Taliban took over Afghanistan again.
Asked by reporters at the White House if he was considering sending US troops to retake Bagram, Trump said: "We won't talk about that, but we're talking now to Afghanistan, and we want it back and we want it back soon, right away. And if they don't do it, you're going to find out what I'm going to do."
On Sunday, a top Taliban official insisted: "A deal over even an inch of Afghanistan's soil is not possible. We don't need it."
Cover photo: REUTERS