The Taliban has rejected US President Donald Trump’s demand that it return billions of dollars’ worth of American weapons and military equipment left in Afghanistan following the US withdrawal in 2021.

Axar.az reports that Taliban Foreign Ministry spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi told CBS News that the equipment now belongs to the Afghan state and that the Taliban would not negotiate over its return.

"The hardware now belongs to state of Afghanistan, and we are not in the business of doing transactions and deals on the assets of the state of Afghanistan," Balkhi said.

Asked about the fact that the weapons and equipment had been purchased with US taxpayer money, Balkhi said that the United States should first account for the damage caused.

"The Americans did a lot of things. Americans killed a lot of people, destroyed the majority of the country. Should they not be paying for that first?" Balkhi added.

Pentagon figures released last year show that about $7 billion worth of US-funded military hardware fell into Taliban hands after the Afghan National Army collapsed in 2021.