Ghasemi joined the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Kharg Island in 1979.[5] He participated in the Iran-Iraq War.[8] After the war, he joined the Khatam-al Anbia troops in Bushehr, the Guards' engineering and construction company.[9] In 1996, he was named head of the IRGC navy's Nouh base.[5] Ghasemi became deputy commander of the troops in 2001.[citation needed]
He was the chair of the IRGC-affiliated Khatam-al Anbiya Construction Headquarters from 2007 to 2011.[8] He retired from the military in August 2011.[citation needed]
On 26 July 2011, he was nominated as oil minister by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to succeed Masoud Mir Kazemi.[10] He was approved by the parliament on 3 August 2011, being the fourth oil minister in the Ahmedinejad government.[11] He received 216 votes of the 246 Majlis members.[5] He was the president of the OPEC for 2011,[12] despite being on the US, EU and Australian sanction list since 2010.[13] Ghasemi's tenure as oil minister ended on 15 August 2013, and he was replaced by Bijan Namdar Zanganeh in the post.[8] Shortly after leaving office Ghasemi was appointed advisor to Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan on 22 August.[8][14]
Ghasemi was seen in a photograph dated 2011 in Malaysia cuddling a woman without hijab alleged to be his non-married girlfriend, in conflict with the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran's government when he was the minister of oil, a cabinet position in that government.[15][16]
On 8 December 2022, Ghasemi died of illness in China, aged 58.[17]
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