Baghdad, Iraq (AHN) - Iraq is set to hold its first-ever international flower festival, with the hopes of showing the world that peace "is blossoming after the winter of war."

City council spokesman Hakim Zahra said the festival would open at 5 pm in central Baghdad's Al-Zawra park and would feature flower merchants from the Middle East, Europe, and India. "We want to send a message that Iraq is a country that is interested in love and peace," Zahra said, "The time of violence and fear is over now."

After more than five years since the invasion of Iraq, Zawra Park reopened in July, and features a zoo, swimming pool and a promenade, popular during religious and national holidays.

During the bombing the capital Baghdad at the start of the war, many Iraqis bought flowers and small garden plants to be left as symbols of their life in case they were killed during the war