Russia has cautioned Washington against any attempt to seize control of Afghanistan’s Bagram airbase, after former US President Donald Trump demanded that the facility be handed over, the local Khaama Press News Agency reports.

Moscow’s special envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, said such a move would provoke strong resistance and end in disaster. He described Afghans as well accustomed to war, and warned that they would not tolerate renewed foreign interference. As such, any US-led operation to retake the base would have “catastrophic consequences”.

Trump has repeatedly pressed the ruling Taliban to surrender Bagram, once the largest American military base in Afghanistan, insisting that he expected its transfer without delay. Just days ago the US president warned the Taliban leadership that “bad things will happen” should they refuse.

The Taliban, however, has already rejected the demand outright. Its military chief said Afghans had “fought well to defend their independence” and should the US consider a military operation, would continue to do so in the face of any challenge to the country’s sovereignty.

The Taliban’s deputy intelligence chief, Tajmir Jawad, - himself a long-standing target of Western accusations related to suicide bombings – went even further, vowing that the group would resume such attacks if necessary to repel US interference, Khaama Press added.

The dispute has drawn renewed attention to Afghanistan’s strategic significance almost four years after a chaotic US withdrawal under former President Joe Biden. For many Afghans, Bagram remains the defining emblem of America’s two-decade presence in the country, but analysts now suggest Trump’s position is driven partly by domestic politics and by frustration with Taliban resistance coupled to an intention to limit Chinese moves in the region. It has been claimed by some in the US, somewhat tenuously on the back of evidence on the ground, that Beijing is planning to locate at least part of its nuclear arsenal in the Xinjiang region northeast of Afghanistan.