A seminar organized to discuss the Islamic Republic’s actions and impacts on the Middle East and beyond has been cancelled due to security concerns.

Bryan E. Leib, the executive director of Iranian Americans for Liberty, who was among the panellists of the event told Iran International on Thursday that the seminar was cancelled when organizers found out that two of the participants -- Mark Dubowitz and Victoria Coates -- are on the Islamic Republic’s sanctions list.

The event was scheduled to be held on Tuesday, April 19, at the Albany Club in the Canadian city of Toronto.

“The event organizers were alerted of security concerns and in an abundance of caution, the event was cancelled”, Leib said, adding that “We will be rescheduling this event with proper security precautions because we will never stop speaking out against the malign influence of the Islamic Republic of Iran throughout the world."

Dubowitz is a South African-born Canadian-American attorney and the CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a non-profit think-tank and advocacy institute with a critical focus against Iran’s clerical government. He is known as a proponent of sanctions against Iran and was a leading critic of the Iran nuclear agreement.

Coates is an American political consultant who served as the Deputy National Security Advisor for Middle East and North African Affairs in former president Donald Trump’s administration.