Maybe a little off topic, but why the US are still so hostile against Cuba? Is there any real reason or credible threat that the small island could damage the US? It seems like US is holding the grudge way too long.
Didn't Obama try normalizing the relationship until Trump came along and decided to undo it? Same thing for Iran I guess? Sometimes I feel US foreign policy is much too dependent on the whims of the current administration. Presidents should perhaps have Congress ratify/codify decisions with long-term implications, which would make it harder for the next administration to change?
This is how it works. Lets take the JCPOA as an example. That was the Obama era nuclear deal with Iran. Because of the voting situation in Congress there was no way to get it accepted there. What could have been ratified by Congress would not have been accepted by Iran. Therefore Obama signed the deal as an executive action. He couldn’t have done that if the deal would be bidding with long term implications, so they worded the deal such that the executive of the USA had to re-affirm their commitment to the deal periodically. Trump did re-affirm it at first but when it came up again the second time he refused.
In short: it works exactly as you say already. Obama just simply didn’t have the votes in Congress to push through a binding treaty.