KABUL: In what appears to be a direct challenge to shifting regional dynamics, Iran’s Ambassador and Special Representative to Afghanistan, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, has issued a stern warning against the potential reactivation of the Bagram airbase for foreign military use, asserting that any attempt to re-establish an external military presence on Afghan soil would be viewed as a primary threat to regional peace.
Speaking in an interview with Shamshad TV, the envoy emphasized that the strategic facility, which became a symbol of the two-decade-long international intervention, must remain under the exclusive sovereign control of the Afghan administration.
مصاحبه اختصاصی با علیرضا بیگدلی سفیر ایران در افغانستان پیرامون جنگ جاری امریکا – اسراییل با ایران، شرق میانه، رهبری جدید و وضعیت جاری سیاسی.
پنجشنبه شب ساعت 09:00 از تلویزیون شمشاد#شمشادنیوز #shamshadnews pic.twitter.com/rsBx0cLxc9— ShamshadNews (@Shamshadnetwork) March 11, 2026
His remarks come at a time of renewed speculation regarding the base’s future, following reports of US President Trump asking Afghan Taliban to handover Bagram back to the US, and high-level deliberations and historical sensitivities surrounding its utility in the heart of Central Asia.
Ambassador Qomi stated that the Islamic Republic of Iran remains steadfast in its policy of supporting a stable and independent Afghanistan, free from the influence of extra-regional powers. He noted that the history of the past twenty years has demonstrated that foreign military footprints only exacerbate internal strife and fail to provide the security they claim to uphold.
In a clip from the interview released by the broadcaster, the Iranian envoy said: “If U.S. forces had returned to Bagram, it is possible that today we and you (Afghanistan) would have been involved in a conflict.”
In the backgrop of recent US-Iran war and Pakistan’s military operations inside Afghanistan, the envoy’s statement is being seen as a preemptive diplomatic maneuver, intended to signal Tehran’s “red lines” to both the authorities in Kabul and global actors who may be eyeing the strategic assets left behind by departing forces.
