Masoud Mir-Kazemi


Masoud Mir Kazemi is an Iranian conservative politician who was a member of the Parliament of Iran from Tehran district from 2012 until 2016. He was previously served ministerial post in the cabinet of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Early life and education

Kazemi was born in Tehran in 1960. He received a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from Iran University of Science and Technology in 1986 and 1989, respectively. He also holds PhD in industrial engineering from Tarbiat Modarres University.

Career

After the 1979 revolution, Kazemi became a member of the revolution committees and then of the IRGC. Then he headed Shahed University. He was Iran's minister of commerce during the first term of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from 2005 to 2009. Kazemi discussed the possibility of making neighbouring Iraq a major gas export market, citing the destruction of Iraq's energy infrastructure as a result of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
He served as minister of petroleum from 2009 to 2011, replacing Gholam Hossein Nozari after Ahmadinejad was re-elected.
On 14 October 2010, Mir Kazemi was elected as conference president for 2011 OPEC.
On 9 May 2011, it was announced that Mir Kazemi, Sadegh Mahsouli and Ali Akbar Mehrabian would leave the cabinet. He was not participating in cabinet meetings from June 2011 and Mohammad Aliabadi was acting minister in his absence. He announced his candidacy for Parliament of Iran in the 2012 legislative election on 22 December 2011 and was elected as an MP from Tehran.