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Oil Faces Iran Shock If Biden Win Points to Nuclear Deal

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  • Biden could help Iran shed oil-pariah status, restore exports
  • Obstacles include nervous Gulf allies, Iran’s June election
A U.S. president has authority to ease sanctions through executive orders or by issuing waivers that allow the purchase of Iranian oil.

A U.S. president has authority to ease sanctions through executive orders or by issuing waivers that allow the purchase of Iranian oil.

 Photographer: Ali Mohammadi/Bloomberg

For fragile oil markets, the outcome of next week’s U.S. election poses yet another risk: the prospect that major producer Iran may regain its role in international trade.

Challenger Joe Biden, leading in most polls, has signaled he’ll seek to bring Iran back into the 2015 nuclear accord the U.S. brokered when he was vice president under Barack Obama. That means the economic sanctions President Donald Trump imposed -- and tightened further this week -- could eventually be eased, opening the sluices for more than 2 million barrels a day of Iranian crude exports.