President John Dramani Mahama has been invited by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to visit that country this year.

The visit by President John Mahama to Iran is expected to deepen the long standing relations between the two countries.  

Mr Valiollah Mohammadi, Special Envoy from Iranian President Rouhani, said this when he paid a courtesy call on Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur at the Flagstaff House in Accra.

He subsequently presented the formal invitation from President Rouhani to Vice President Amissah-Arthur to be delivered to President Mahama.

President Mahama is currently on an official assignment in Germany and expected to be back by the end of the week.

Mr Mohammadi said when former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Ghana last year, the two countries setup a Permanent Joint Commission to look into various areas of co-operation in the agriculture, petroleum and health sectors among others.

He said during the visit of President Ahmadinejad the two countries discussed how to implement those agreements by 2015.

He said currently there were officials from Iran in Accra who were meeting with officials from the Ministry of Agriculture as a follow up to the Permanent Joint Commission.  

Mr Mohammadi further noted that Iran had 100 years experience in the field of energy and petroleum and was ready to share this with Ghana.

He said they were ready to co-operate with Ghana in terms of petroleum and transfer of technology.

Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur said Ghana cherished her relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran and hoped to deepen those ties.

He said the Permanent Joint Commission had met already in Tehran and planned for further investments between the two countries.

He expressed the hope that President Mahama would accept the invitation and use the opportunity to develop the Ghana/Iran relations.