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Ever since the United States and Israel eliminated Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, a little over a month ago, the question of who speaks for Iran has loomed over every aspect of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, and especially over the question of how to achieve peace.

Usually stated much less forcefully by U.S. media is the parallel question: Who speaks for the United States? The putative successor in Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei, the previous leader’s son, is said to be recovering from injuries in the attack on his father and has not since made a public appearance. The president of the United States, Donald Trump, by contrast, is everywhere at once, both literally and figuratively.

Ever since the United States and Israel eliminated Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, a little over a month ago, the question of who speaks for Iran has loomed over every aspect of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, and especially over the question of how to achieve peace.

Usually stated much less forcefully by U.S. media is the parallel question: Who speaks for the United States? The putative successor in Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei, the previous leader’s son, is said to be recovering from injuries in the attack on his father and has not since made a public appearance. The president of the United States, Donald Trump, by contrast, is everywhere at once, both literally and figuratively.

In the space of a single recent 24-hour news cycle, Trump went from issuing threats of wholesale, indiscriminate violence against Iran unless it capitulated to his demands, to declaring a two-week cease-fire that appeared to make major concessions to Tehran while also claiming a U.S. victory.

In other words, no sooner had the White House threatened to commit what many international law experts believe would be clear war crimes than it proclaimed that Iran’s shadowy leadership was........

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