The United States has vowed that Afghan forces working with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) will thwart a Taliban move to impose a ban on polio vaccine in Pakistan's northwest tribal regions until the U.S. stopped drone strikes.
This was stated by State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland when Monday's Taliban statement was brought to her notice during a routine press briefing.
Terming it "a horrific decision by the Taliban," Nuland expressed confidence that "Afghan forces working with ISAF will ensure that they can't implement it. Why would you take out your frustrations on the children of Afghanistan? That's just brutal and cruel," she said.
When a reporter corrected her that it was northwest regions of Pakistan, not Afghanistan, Nuland said, "if in fact it's on the Pakistani side, it's further to the point that we regularly make to Pakistanis that these terrorist elements are as much a threat to Pakistan as they are to Afghanistan or anybody else. And if they're now taking it - taking their horrific actions to the children of Pakistan, then everybody needs to think hard about that."
Replying to another question, Nuland said: "We're still having some skirmishes in the south (of Afghanistan), but overall security has improved greatly in the south. And the Afghans are in far better security control in much of the south as compared to two years ago."
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