First VP appoints Qasemi as advisor

Iran’s First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri has appointed former oil minister Rostam Qasemi as his advisor, a move which is apparently aimed at boosting Iran-Iraq economic and trade relations.
“Given the priority of development of ties between the two brotherly countries of Iran and Iraq, you are expected to use the capacities of the two states to remove the (existing) obstacles,” Jahangiri said in a decree issued on Saturday.

Qasemi is also an advisor to Iran’s Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan.

A veteran of Iran-Iraq war, Qasemi served as the chair of the Khatam-ol Anbiya Construction Headquarters, a giant semi-government company, from 2007 to 2011. On July 26, 2011, he was nominated as oil minister by president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. During his tenure, he also became president of OPEC for 2011.