Reuters and CNN that U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday that the United States wanted to regain control of the Afghan air base in Bagram.Sources told CNN that the Trump administration had "prepared for months".
During a press conference with British Prime Minister Starmer, when a reporter asked Trump about his views on the Russia-Ukraine issue, he suddenly said that the United States allowed the Taliban to "occupy" Bagram Air Force Base in vain and planned to regain control of the base.
“We want to regain control here, it’s probably a small emergency news, but we want to regain control here,” Trump said in a statement.
CNN quoted three sources as saying that since March this year, Trump has urged U.S. national security officials to plan plans to regain control of the Bagram Air Base.In early September, Trump blamed former President Biden’s plans to withdraw from Afghanistan for “very stupid” and said the U.S. could retain control of the base if it would implement it itself.
Trump did not specify how this would be achieved, but sources said Trump wanted to control the base for purposes such as obtaining rare earth and mining rights in Afghanistan and facilitating counter-terrorism.
Bagram Air Base is located in Parwan province in eastern Afghanistan, about 47 kilometers north of Kabul, the capital of the country. During the occupation of Afghanistan, the U.S. military carried out a large-scale transformation of the site, allowing the base to take off and land large bombers. In July 2021, after the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, the base was taken over by the Afghan side.