Iran's Supreme Leader Advisor Shamkhani: Tehran 'Ready to Sign' Nuclear Deal If All Sanctions Lifted Quickly; Calls Netanyahu 'Main Obstacle' — Day 78

Ali Shamkhani, a senior advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and former Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, issued a significant signal on May 16, 2026 (Day 78) stating that Tehran was 'ready to sign the nuclear deal in exchange for the quick removal of all financial sanctions.' The statement represented one of Iran's clearest expressions of readiness to conclude a formal agreement since the conflict began February 28, though it came with sharp conditions and critiques. Shamkhani simultaneously dismissed Trump's reported desire for control over Iran's nuclear program as a 'fantasy,' calling the condition unrealistic and non-negotiable. He also named Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the 'main obstacle' to a deal, saying: 'If the Americans remove the Bibi effect, they can easily sign the deal' — framing Netanyahu as actively sabotaging US-Iran diplomacy to prevent any accommodation that would constrain Israeli freedom of action against Iranian nuclear sites. The Shamkhani statement came in direct response to Trump's newly dispatched nuclear proposal on Day 78, creating a day-long diplomatic exchange that observers characterized as the most active signaling since the failed one-page memo process in early May. Shamkhani's readiness declaration was conditioned on 'quick removal of all financial sanctions' — a sequencing demand that the US has consistently rejected in favor of step-by-step verification-based relief. The structural gap remains: Iran demands sanctions removal first; the US demands enrichment halt and verification first.