Shiraz, Florence mayors discuss developing cultural relations

Shiraz, May 16, IRNA – Mayor of Iranian city of Shiraz Heidar Eskandarpour and his counterpart in Italy’s Florence Dario Nardella in a video conference reviewed developing bilateral and cultural ties. Both sides discussed issues related to coronavirus and historical and cultural commonalities. Describing Florence as an international city Nardella said "I am interested in Shiraz and Iran and my father was an orientalist, especially on Middle Eastern issues, who knew Persian Language. Referring to 700th anniversary of Dante in 2021, he called for Iran’s cooperation in holding the event and creating brotherliness between Shiraz and Florence by inviting Iranian and Italian linguists. He voiced his interest in promoting cooperation with Shiraz saying he was supposed to visit Iran in 2020 but due to the outbreak of coronavirus it was cancelled. Florence as a tourist city with 14 million tourists per year has faced many problems due to coronavirus outbreak, Nardella said, adding that unfortunately Italy is facing with social and economic crises. Meanwhile, Eskandarpour said coronavirus showed that regardless of border, geography and race, people in the world are facing a common problem and they should cooperate for overcoming the issue. He added that the post-COVID19 world will be different and the historical cities which have commonalities can play more important roles. He also expressed readiness for developing more cooperation. Earlier, Mayor of Nanjing Han Liming in a message to her counterpart in the Iranian city of Shiraz Heidar Eskandarpour expressed a tendency for sharing experiences with Shiraz in fighting COVID-19. In the meantime, Mayor of Kyoto Daisaku Kadokawa, who is also chairman of the Union of Historical Towns, in a message to people and Mayor of Shiraz expressed concerns over the US sanctions imposed against Iran in time of coronavirus outbreak. Dresden Mayor Dirk Hilbert also in a message to Eskandarpour and people of Shiraz congratulated National Day of Shiraz which falls in May 5. The reason behind such a celebration is the beauty of Shiraz at this moment.