US President Donald Trump said the Taliban could “possibly” overrun the Afghan government after foreign troops withdraw from the country as part of an agreement signed between the two sides last week.
 
“Countries have to take care of themselves,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday. “You can only hold someone's hand for so long.”
 
According to the US-Taliban deal signed in Qatar last week, US and NATO forces should completely withdraw over a 14-month period to end the 19-year-long Afghanistan war.
 
In response to a question on whether the Taliban could eventually seize power from the current government, Trump said it is “not supposed to happen that way but it possibly will.”
 
“We can’t be there for the next 20 years. We’ve been there for 20 years and we’ve been protecting the country, but we can’t be there for the next - eventually, they’re going to have to protect themselves,” he said.
 
On Tuesday, Trump had a phone conversation with Taliban deputy leader Abdul Ghani Baradar. Trump called the conversation a “good talk.”
 
This comes as Kabul witnessed a deadly attack on Friday in which more than 30 people, including women, were killed and over 80 others were wounded.