The Taliban on Sunday rejected US President Donald Trump's request to return Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, back to the US military.
Taliban deputy spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat urged the Trump administration to pursue a policy of "realism and rationality."
Afghanistan has consistently communicated with the US in all bilateral negotiations that the country's independence and territorial integrity are of the utmost importance to the Taliban government, Fitrat claimed.
"It should be recalled that, under the Doha Agreement, the United States pledged that ‘it will not use or threaten force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Afghanistan, nor interfere in its internal affairs,’" he added. Washington needs to remain faithful to its commitments, he insisted.
Outlets, including the Associated Press, reached out to Taliban chief spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid for comment, but he did not reply.
Taliban military chief Fasihuddin Fitrat stated that negotiations over Bagram are "not feasible," the Taliban's official media, Bakhtar News Agency, reported.
Fitrat claimed that Afghanistan is "undeterred by tyranny," commenting on the Taliban's 20-year-long "jihad" against the US and NATO, the report added.
Fitrat also said that "some people" want to take back Bagram through a "political deal," in comments broadcast by local media cited by France24.
"Recently, some people have said that they have entered negotiations with Afghanistan for taking back Bagram air base...A deal over even an inch of Afghanistan's soil is not possible. We don't need it," he added.
"The Afghans have not accepted a military presence in history, and this possibility was completely rejected during the Doha talks and agreement, but the doors are open for further interaction," Taliban foreign ministry official Zakir Jalaly wrote on X.
Bagram is the largest air base in Afghanistan, and was the center of US operations in their war against the Taliban, France24 noted.
Trump has criticized the loss of the base, specifically due to its proximity to China, France24 reported.
Will the US send military personnel to reclaim the base by force?
When asked whether the US military will send soldiers to reclaim the base, Trump answered that "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."
Trump said on Saturday that if Afghanistan does not give back control of the Bagram air base to the United States, "bad things" will happen.
"If Afghanistan doesn’t give Bagram Airbase back to those that built it, the United States of America, BAD THINGS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN," Trump said in a Truth Social post.
Trump expressed interest in reclaiming the Bagram Air Base from the Taliban to use in counterterrorism operations during a press conference in the UK on Thursday.
The airbase, located in Afghanistan, could be a strategically advantageous location for counterterrorism operations against ISIS, a US official familiar with the discussions told The Wall Street Journal.
CNN reported that the US administration may seek to regain the base for improved access to rare earth minerals as well as to potentially reopen a diplomatic facility.
In August 2024, the Taliban celebrated the third anniversary of their takeover of the air base with a military display of US material left behind in 2021, during an operation conducted by the Biden administration, which Trump has repeatedly accused of "gross incompetence" for the way the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan was conducted.
Meanwhile, the Taliban said that they reached an agreement with US envoys on a prisoner exchange as part of an effort to normalize relations, AP reported.
The report noted that the Islamist group did not give details, and the White House did not issue any comments on the matter, but that the Taliban released photographs of talks between Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and the Trump administration's special envoy for hostage response, Adam Boehler.
Jerusalem Post Staff and Reuters contributed to this report.