The seminar to be held at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in the capital, Delhi, has been cancelled. According to sources, representatives from Iran, Palestine and Lebanon would participate in these seminars. He confirmed that the organizers have received a message from the Dean of the SIS indicating that it will be necessary to obtain prior permission for said seminar.
Students received mail a few hours before the seminar.
Iranian Ambassador Dr. Iraj Elahi was scheduled to speak at a seminar on “How Iran Views Recent Developments in West Asia” at 11 a.m. Thursday, but a few hours before the seminar, coordinator Sima Baidya convened the students to a conference at 8 am an email at 9 am informing them that this program has been cancelled.
In this email, Baidya also mentioned that the seminar on violence in Palestine on November 7, which Palestinian ambassador Adnan Abu al-Haija was to address, and the seminar on the situation in Lebanon on November 14, which The Lebanese ambassador, Dr. Rabie Narsh, has canceled his two speeches.
Sources in the Iranian and Lebanese embassies told The Indian Express that the decision to cancel the events was taken by the university and they did not know the reasons. The Palestinian embassy did not respond to any text messages or phone calls. University sources said senior professors at the School of International Studies (SIS), which houses the Center for West Asian Studies, had expressed concern about possible protests on campus. He believed that seminars on such sensitive topics could create tensions on campus, so it was deemed appropriate to cancel them.
A university source told The Indian Express that the purpose of these seminars was to understand the perspective of West Asian countries amid the current international situation, but there were concerns about how these issues might react on campus.
