Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani has, in separate messages, congratulated several heads of state on the beginning of Nowruz, which marks the start of the Persian New Year and is celebrated in many countries.

Hassan Rouhani expressed congratulations to leaders of Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, the Azerbaijan Republic, Turkmenistan, Armenia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Iraq and Uzbekistan, IFP News reports.

“The joyful song of Nowruz being sung, blossoms blooming, Mother Nature going green and spring swallows chirping, they all are signs of God Almighty’s inexhaustible power,” said the president. “They are signs of forgetting the cold of winter and the renewal of beauty and kindness,” the president added.

In his messages, the president expressed hope that with the Earth becoming warm and the nature coming alive, humans’ attitudes and thoughts will become new like the nature and the year.

In a message of his own, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan congratulated the Kurdish community of Armenia on Nowruz, the New Year.