DUSHANBE, March 17, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- At the invitation of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President Emomali Rahmon will visit Iran from March 27-28 to attend the Navrouz celebrations, according to the Tajik MFA information department.

President Rahmon will visit Tehran and the ancient Iranian city of Shiraz, where the main Navrouz celebrations will take place this year, the source said.

According to the Iranian Embassy in Dushanbe, heads of 20 countries that also celebrate this festival have been invited as well.

We will recall that Iranian media reported in February that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad invited Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and Afghan President Hamid Karzai to celebrate Navrouz in Shiraz this year.

As it had been reported earlier, the United Nations General Assembly on February 23 this year recognized the International Day of Nowruz (In Tajik Navrouz), a spring festival of Persian origin.  The Assembly called on Member States that celebrate the festival to study its history and traditions with a view to disseminating that knowledge among the international community and organizing annual commemoration events.