The UN in Afghanistan, UNAMA, said Wednesday it was deeply disappointed that for the fourth consecutive year, girls have again been denied access to secondary education.

According to a statement issued by UNAMA, this “will only compound Afghanistan’s human rights, humanitarian, and economic crises.

“The new school year has started in Afghanistan, but yet again with a glaring and damaging absence of girls from the classrooms. This is not only harming their future prospects, but the peace and prosperity of all Afghans,” said Roza Otunbayeva, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

According to Unicef, the denial of female access to education as so far impacted 2.2 million Afghan girls, including 400,000 this year. If the ban remains in place until 2030, over four million girls will have been impacted.

“I am deeply disappointed that the de facto authorities continue to ignore the demands of communities across Afghanistan, who have endured decades of war and continue to face a terrible humanitarian crisis. This ban reduces Afghanistan’s prospects of recovery, and must be reversed,” said Otunbayeva.

“This ban is also one of the main reasons Afghanistan continues to be isolated from the international community, which is also holding back recovery. Still, I urge international donors to continue to support the Afghan people, including in the education sector where possible,” Otunbayeva said.

Russia’s Ambassador to Pakistan, Albert P. Khorev, has said Afghanistan’s efforts to combat militancy have been inadequate but attributed this to economic challenges and prevailing security conditions in the country.

He said ISIS (Daesh) was the greatest threat to Russia’s national and regional security, and that Moscow is closely monitoring the situation.

Khorev added that Moscow is also working with regional partners under the “Quartet” format to counter terrorism.

He went on to state that Russia also continues to collaborate with regional countries under the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to eliminate militancy.

He reaffirmed Moscow’s support for Pakistan, Afghanistan, and other regional states in tackling militant threats.

Khorev also dismissed media reports that Pakistan was supplying weapons to Ukraine.

“We have not found any proof of Pakistani arms supplies in the Ukraine-Russia conflict. All such claims are baseless.”

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has meanwhile repeatedly countered that Daesh has been suppressed in Afghanistan and that the group’s activities are rooted in Pakistan.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesperson for the Islamic Emirate said on Tuesday that the IEA has requested the handover of the Afghanistan embassy in Washington D.C.  

In an interview with Al Arabiya, Mujahid said the request was made last week during the US delegation’s visit to Afghanistan. 

He said the IEA also asked the United States to reopen its embassy in Kabul. 

The visit by the American delegation, which led to the release of George Glezmann who had been held in a prison in Afghanistan for two years, was seen as a positive step towards improving bilateral relations.

Mujahid meanwhile also mentioned the removal of the group’s leaders from the U.S. government’s most-wanted list and said this was a positive step. 

The IEA’s request for the reopening of the U.S. embassy in Kabul and the handover of the Afghanistan embassy in Washington is meanwhile testimony to the government’s desire to be recognized internationally.