AFP: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s plan to merge the strategic oil ministry into an enlarged energy portfolio has been “cancelled,” the official parliamentary website said on Tuesday.

Wall Street Journal: A leading member of Saudi Arabia’s royal family warned that Riyadh could seek to supplant Iran’s oil exports if the country doesn’t constrain its nuclear program, a move that could hobble Tehran’s finances.

Reuters: EU states reached a political agreement on Wednesday to extend sanctions against Syria to four military-linked entities and seven individuals, including three Iranians, linked to suppression of dissent, EU diplomats said.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jun. 22 – Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a telephone conversation with Cuban President Raul Castro expressed Tehran’s enthusiasm and willingness to intensify relations with all South American nations in particular Cuba, Iranian state media reported on Wednesday.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jun. 21 – Iranian Majlis (Parliament) Speaker Ali Larijani on Monday demanded that all international forces leave Afghanistan.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jun. 21 – Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati has declared his new government is ready to implement agreements which had previously been discussed with Tehran, Iranian state-media reported on Tuesday.

AFP: Iran has set a date of July 31 for the next hearing in the trial of two American hikers who have been held for around 22 months in the Islamic republic on espionage charges, their lawyer told AFP on Monday.

Washington Post: A growing confrontation between Iran’s clerical rulers and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is spilling over to unusually direct criticism of the president’s inner circle of advisers.

AFP: Iran’s parliament on Tuesday launched impeachment procedures against Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi for appointing an aide to the president’s underfire chief of staff as one of his deputies.