UN Security Council members in a statement on Friday condemned the recent decision by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) that reversed its commitment to allow all girls to return to schools.

The statement was delivered by the envoys of the United Arab Emirates and Norway, on behalf of Albania, Brazil, France, Gabon, Ireland, Mexico, UK, US, Norway and UAE.

UAE Ambassador Lana Zaki Nusseibeh said that “all girls in Afghanistan should be able to get to school,” and that “education is a universal right for all children.”

“This week, more than a million Afghan girls were getting ready to finally be able to return to school. Their hopes were dashed at the last minute, at the school gates, when they learned that their right to an education will continue to be denied through an arbitrary decision,” she said.

Nusseibeh said that the decision is a “profoundly disturbing setback.”

“Education is a universal right for all children. That includes the girls of Afghanistan,” she said.

Meanwhile, Norwegian Ambassador Mona Juul said that Afghanistan is at the brink of collapse.

“In order for Afghanistan to secure a safe and stable future, it simply cannot miss out on the talent and potential and deprive half of its population of education. Education is the key building block of every society,” Juul said.

She continued: “By this statement, members of the Security Council send a unified message to the Taliban to open the schools for all and to provide a safe learning environment for all children and youth in the country.”

Juul also said that the international community stands ready to continue supporting Afghan people including education for all children.

“More than one million of girls in Afghanistan were left at home in tears this week. We cannot let them down,” she said.

The United States abruptly cancelled meetings with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), in Doha that were set to address key economic issues, officials said on Friday, after Afghanistan’s IEA rulers reversed a decision to allow all girls to return to high school classes, Reuters reported.

The cancellation of talks was the first concrete sign that recent IEA moves on human rights and inclusivity could directly impact the international community’s willingness to help the group, some of whose leaders are under U.S. sanctions.

“Their decision was a deeply disappointing and inexplicable reversal of commitments to the Afghan people, first and foremost, and also to the international community,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson told Reuters.

“We have cancelled some of our engagements, including planned meetings in Doha, and made clear that we see this decision as a potential turning point in our engagement.”

Three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that the series of meeting between U.S. and IEA administration officials were set to take place on the sidelines of a conference in Qatar’s capital on Saturday and Sunday.

Some of the meetings were to have included United Nations and World Bank representatives, the sources added.

An Afghan foreign ministry spokesman confirmed that an IEA delegation, including the acting foreign minister, had been expecting to go to Doha, Reuters reported.

The talks were designed to cover issues including the independence of the Afghan central bank and the printing of Afghani currency bank notes.

Also up for discussion were a humanitarian exchange facility to free up cash and hundreds of millions of dollars of funding currently held in a World Bank Trust Fund that is earmarked for Afghanistan’s education sector, according to the three sources.

They declined to be named because they were not authorised to speak with the media.

“The Qatari jet that was meant to collect Muttaqi’s delegation in Kabul has not turned up,” said a diplomatic source, referring to Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi.

The Qatari government’s communications office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The move shows the headwinds the Islamic Emirate (IE)

 administration faces in accessing foreign aid and freeing up the banking sector. Hard currency shortages have fuelled inflation and worsened the economic crisis.

The IEA have also been unable to access billions of dollars in foreign reserves held overseas as governments including the United States refuse to fully recognise them.

In addition to the crippled financial system, the sharp drop in development funding that once amounted to billions of dollars and helped the Afghan government to function has exacerbated food shortages and poverty.

Roughly 23 million people are experiencing acute hunger and 95% of the population are not eating enough food, according to the United Nations.

Washington and its allies have insisted that the IEA, who banned girls from school and most women from work the last time they ruled, improve their human rights record.

The Islamic Emirate (IE) says it will honour everyone’s rights within its interpretation of Islamic law and has vowed to investigate specific allegations of abuse.

The IEA on Wednesday backtracked on their previous commitment to open high schools to girls, saying that they would remain closed until a plan was drawn up for them to reopen.

The U-turn shocked many, leaving students in tears and sparking small protests by girls in Kabul. It also drew condemnation from humanitarian agencies and foreign governments.

“They are definitely shooting themselves in the foot,” said Graeme Smith, a senior consultant at International Crisis Group, of the decision on girls’ education.

A major donor summit for humanitarian aid is set to take place this month, co-hosted by Britain, in an effort to help raise $4.4 billion in funding the United Nations says it needs to meet urgent needs in the country.

Diplomats and aid groups fear that the war in Ukraine, combined with the IEA’s decision on girls’ schooling, will make it harder to raise the money.

“The decision is understandable,” John Sifton of Human Rights Watch said of the U.S. move. “The U.S. and other donors need to communicate to the Taliban that their actions are unacceptable.”

“At the same time, the cancellation of this important meeting is tragic … The Afghan economy has collapsed, and millions are facing acute malnutrition. People are dying of starvation every day.”

The main tasks of the first stage of Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine have been completed in general and the combat potential of the Ukrainian armed forces has been significantly reduced, the Russian Ministry of Defense said Friday.

The Russian military will “concentrate on the main thing — the complete liberation of Donbass,” said Sergei Rudskoy, first deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces, at a news briefing in Moscow.

The Ukrainian air forces and air defense systems have been almost completely destroyed and its naval forces have ceased to exist. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian army has no organized reserves left, Rudskoy told the media.

The Ukrainian cities of Kiev, Kharkov, Chernihiv, Sumy and Nikolaev are blocked by Russian troops, while Kherson and most of the Zaporozhye region are under Russia’s full control, Rudskoy said.

Armed forces in Donbass now control 93 percent of Luhansk region and 54 percent of the Donetsk region, he said.

Since the start of the military operation a month ago, more than 14,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed and about 16,000 others wounded. As for the Russian side, 1,351 servicemen have been killed and 3,825 others injured, said Rudskoy.

The Russian Ministry of Defense also said that since March 4, Russia has opened a number of humanitarian corridors, with nearly 420,000 civilians having been evacuated from Ukraine and the Donbass region to Russia. Russia has conducted 617 humanitarian operations in Donbass, Kiev and other places and offered 5,043 tons of emergency relief supplies to the civilians there.