The Russian Embassy in Kabul said on Monday that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s(IEA) refusal to participate in the recent meeting of special envoys to Afghanistan in Doha was reasonable and justified.

The embassy said in a statement nthat the organizers of the Doha meeting had declined Kabul’s requests to participate on behalf of all Afghans, and that they wanted representatives of the Islamic Emirate to attend only sub-sessions.

The statement said that Russia decided to refrain from participating in meetings with so-called representatives of Afghan civil society, adding they had been selected in a non-transparent manner.

Vassily Nebenzia, the permanent representative of Russia to the United Nations, said on Monday that the international community has no choice but to engage with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA).

“We are not turning our back on women and children of Afghanistan. We stress all the time that the issue of human rights of women and girls in Afghanistan is an important matter which we follow, which we are on the same line with our colleagues in the Security Council and in the international community,” Nebenzia said.

“But there are other things for Afghanistan that should be dealt with and should be attended to. We have no choice but to engage pragmatically with the de facto authorities of Afghanistan,” he added.

The second meeting of special envoys to Afghanistan ended on Monday.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a news conference that delegates had discussed “creating the conditions, in a next meeting, to have the presence of the de facto authorities of Afghanistan.”