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Minister frames Yalda as regional cultural diplomacy tool ahead of solstice
In a video message to the “Chelleh Mehr” cultural and artistic program hosted by the ECO Cultural Institute on the eve of Yalda, Salehi-Amiri said the winter solstice observance went beyond a calendrical festivity, framing it as a shared language of conversation, solidarity and peace spanning families, societies and regions, ISNA reported.
The intervention underlines Tehran’s effort to lean on soft power amid a fragmented regional landscape. By foregrounding common rituals across the Nowruz zone, which spans parts of Iran, Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Persian Gulf, officials aim to thicken cultural linkages where political channels are constrained.
The approach mirrors a broader recalibration towards non-coercive tools, with cultural exchange positioned as a low-cost, high-impact vector for engagement.
“Yalda is not merely a night,” the minister said, calling it a “deep-rooted” practice of togetherness that begins at home and extends into public life.
He described the night-long gatherings and conversation as a social rehearsal for cohesion, capable of carrying meaning “beyond political borders” and national demarcations.
Salehi-Amiri linked Yalda to a continuum of Iranian rites, including Nowruz, Chaharshanbe Suri and Sizdah Bedar, portraying them as an integrated civilizational system that channels society away from “fracture” towards unity.
Yalda, he said, acts as a bridge that “moves us from division to consensus”.
Emphasizing the regional dimension, the minister said the Nowruz area could activate a durable cultural current centered on dialogue, with Yalda as a “prominent symbol”.
He pointed to the existing alignment of 13 countries around Nowruz as a template for elevating Yalda into a shared marker across Iran, ECO members, Central Asia, the Caucasus and neighboring Persian Gulf states.
The minister contrasted cultural and political diplomacy, arguing that the former prioritizes shared heritage and peaceful coexistence over power and rivalry. Yalda, he said, inherently carries those values and can draw states and societies “from tension towards dialogue”.