Jonathan Henick, the United States Ambassador to Uzbekistan, has said that Washington and Tashkent have reached an agreement regarding the fate of military aircraft that were flown into Uzbekistan by the Afghan military during the fall of Kabul in 2021.
In response, the Taliban’s Ministry of Defense has declared that any agreement concerning these helicopters and planes is “unacceptable.”
At least 46 aircraft, including helicopters, were left in Uzbekistan after the fall of Kabul.
In an interview with the Uzbek media outlet Kun, Ambassador Henick stated that the equipment in question was, in fact, U.S. property.
“These aircraft were never Afghan; they have always been under U.S. ownership,” Henick said. “While the Afghan military used these aircraft, the ownership has always remained with us.”
The Taliban-run Ministry of Defense, in a statement on Tuesday, rejected any deal concerning the aircraft in Uzbekistan, insisting that the United States “has no right to donate or seize Afghanistan’s property.”
The ministry also called on Uzbekistan to refrain from entering into any agreements with other countries regarding these assets.
Before the Taliban’s takeover, Afghanistan’s military possessed 164 aircraft.
Of these, only 81 remain. Some Afghan Air Force pilots managed to fly a number of helicopters and planes to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan as the Afghan government collapsed.
In total, 22 military planes and 24 helicopters were flown to Uzbekistan after the fall of Kabul.
