This column features excerpts from news articles, editorials, commentaries, and interviews of the leading Iranian newspapers and websites.

Saturday’s headlines
HEMAYAT: Public support neutralizes sanctions, Hashemi Rafsanjani says
TAFAHOM: Gas of delinquent subscribers will be cut, deputy oil minister says
JAVAN: U.S. new game against Iran in Iraq, Afghanistan
JAME JAM: Protesters call for an Islamic state in Egypt
TEHRAN-E EMROOZ: Haddad Adel warns Islamic Revolution Resistance Front
KHORASAN: 16% increase in murders with cold weapons during last year, police announce
HAMSHAHRI: MPs welcome nominee for post of oil minister
KAYHAN: We have found some clues about Rezaiinejad’s assassination, Moslehi says
IRAN: Situation is ripe for Iran to emerge as one of the world’s best economies, president says
DONYA EGHTESADI: Inflation rate was under control in (month of) Tir (21 June- 21 July)
SHARQ: Some want Mashaii to be Majlis speaker, Society of Combatant Clergy spokesman tells SHARQ
MELLATEMA: We are not taking orders from anyone, deputy governor of the Central Bank of Iran says
Leading article
KHORASAN, in a news report, quotes Rostam Qasemi, the nominee for the post of oil minister, as saying that he has not accepted any condition for serving as minister. “I have submitted my plans to the president and Dr. Ahmadinejad nominated me as a minister,” added Qasemi, who is director of the Khatam-ol-Anbiya Base which is the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps’ construction contractor. Qasemi also said he plans to develop joint oil and gas fields, particularly South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf, and to increase gas export to regional countries and Europe if he is approved by MPs in a confirmation vote.
JAVAN, in a news report, quotes MP Parviz Sorouri of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee as saying that the associates of the sedition movement and the deviant current have aligned against each other but they share a common goal. Sorouri said both groups are making attempts to propagate an Iranian school of thought rather than the Islamic school of thought and try to put out the nation’s enmity and anger toward the United States. The two groups also chant the slogan of “Independence, freedom, ‘Iranian’ Republic”, he noted. The principlist MP went on to say that seditionists chanted “No Gaza, No Lebanon, I Sacrifice My Life for Iran” and “the deviant current also raised the issue of ‘Israeli and Iranian people’”, a reference to the statement by presidential chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaii who had claimed that the Iranian people have no enmity with the Israeli people despite the fact that these people have left their countries of origin and settled in Palestinian lands. Sorouri added the deviant current tried to introduce itself as the only ‘principlist’ group in order to put others outside the umbrella of principlism and thereby block unity among principlists