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

Thursday’s headlines
KAYHAN: Leader says awakening will spread to the heart of Europe
TEHRAN-E EMROOZ: Refusal to obey Leader’s decree is against law and sharia (Islamic law), Judiciary chief says
HAMSHAHRI: Unity between Palestinians in new Egypt
SHARQ: No economically corrupt person is on the president’s list, Mostafa Purmohammadi says
IRAN: Forex Fund reserves hit the unprecedented figure of $116 billion, economy minister announces
QODS: The deployment of foreign forces to Bahrain has complicated the situation, Salehi says
JAME JAM: government gained $14 billion income from the subsidy reform plan during last year (which ended March 20)
MELLATMA: Green lights to reformists over election
JAVAN: Labor Ministry is merged with Welfare Ministry, Oil Ministry with Energy Ministry
TEHRAN-E EMROOZ: Dilapidated residential districts threaten the morality and dignity of people
Leading articles
JAME JAM in a news report quotes Major General Hassan Firouzabadi as saying today think tanks and senior close aides to U.S. officials as well as analysts aligned to the hegemonistic system are openly expressing concern over the strategic power of the Islamic Revolution in Iran so that they can find a justification for the Obama government’s irrational moves such as sanctions, soft war, and intervention in Islamic and Arab countries. Firouzabadi, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also said the U.S. as a “waning superpower” is forced to drop military strategy and use it only as a “paper tiger”.
In an interview with the SHARQ newspaper Mohammad Hashemi strongly dismisses a report that Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani is willing to quit as Expediency Council chairman. Mohammad Hashemi’s remarks came as Morteza Nabavi, a senior member of the Islamic Society of Engineers, told a weekly meeting of Ansar-e Hezbollah that he has heard that Rafsanjani has visited Supreme Leader and said he does not want to stay in the post as Expediency Council chief “but I have no reliable information” that he plans to quit. Nabavi said what is comprehended is that the Supreme Leader wants Rafsanjani to retain his post. However, Mohammad Hashemi, the brother of Rafsanjani, told SHARQ that “I do not confirm the report and I strongly dismiss it.” Mohammad Hashemi said Ayatollah Rafsanjani holds regular meetings with the Supreme Leader and such issues have never been raised. Hashemi said the reasons behind the spread of such rumors are much more important than the rumors themselves.