Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has stressed the importance of facilitating banking relations with Ghana in a bid to improve bilateral cooperation.

“To facilitate relations in the private sector, we should facilitate some issues such as banking cooperation with Ghana,” Zarif told reporters in the Ghanaian capital of Accra on Tuesday.

He added that a big economic delegation is accompanying him in his tour of West African countries, saying, “This is an opportunity.”

“We see no obstacle to the expansion of relations with Ghana and Africa and welcome bolstering ties with these countries,” the top Iranian diplomat added.
Meanwhile, in a meeting between the Iranian foreign minister and Ghana’s Speaker of Parliament Edward Doe Adjaho on Tuesday, the two sides urged enhanced cooperation in various sectors.

Zarif and Adjaho also exchanged views about ways to fight terrorism.

In another meeting, between Zarif and Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama, the two sides urged the improvement of cooperation, particularly in economy and at international bodies.

Earlier in the day, Zarif held a meeting with Hanna Tetteh, Ghana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration. The two ministers discussed possible ways to improve relations.

Zarif is in Ghana on the second leg of a four-nation African tour. He was in Nigeria before arriving in Ghana and will be traveling to Guinea-Conakry and Mali on the third and fourth legs of his tour.

On Monday, he addressed a group of Iranian expatriates in Accra, saying projects by the Israeli and Saudi Arabian regimes to portray Iran as a threat to the world have been futile over the past years.

“It is obvious that the cooperation of the Zionist regime (Israel) and the Saudi regime, which are two like-minded and congruent regimes, has today become known and can no more be concealed,” Zarif said.

Zarif has already paid two official visits to Africa.

He visited four East African countries - Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, and Tanzania – in February 2015, marking the opening of a new chapter in Tehran’s ties with Africa.

The Iranian foreign minister also made a visit to North African countries of Tunisia and Algeria in August 2015.

Iran already has a significant presence in agriculture and development projects in some African countries and has been a major contributor to humanitarian missions across the continent over the past years.