'We are settling years of unfinished business': Trump talks up Iran, Gaza, Latin America strategy

Submitted by Yasmine El-Sabawi on Tue, 09/22/2026 - 15:15 In sweeping and often unsubstantiated generalisations, the US president gave a glowing assessment of the foreign policy now weighing down American pocketbooks

US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters upon his arrival at the 81st United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City, on 22 September 2026 (Charly Triballeau/AFP) Off

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday touted his 20-month legacy in the White House with wholesale generalisations about his foreign policy, relying on unsubstantiated figures, debunked allegations, and a demand that United Nations member states withdraw their membership from the International Criminal Court (ICC).

In 38-minute remarks to the UN General Assembly, the US president largely refrained from the direct attacks he delivered last year, but still insisted, without evidence, that "72,000" Iranians were killed by their own government last year, and that members of Hamas and other Palestinian groups "tortured, mutilated, and killed... many tiny babies".

Iran's own figures suggest some 3,500 Iranians were killed during protests in December and January, while human rights watchdogs have put that figure at some 5,000 or more. Trump has repeatedly used figures ranging from 40,000 to 82,000 in his speeches this year, but it remains unclear where he derived those figures, given that satellite images would have indicated burial sites as they have in other mass killings around the world.

Israeli media has found the claims of torturing and killing Israeli babies in southern Israel to be untrue, and the Israeli army also admitted that mistakes were made by at least one soldier who fed stories to the rescue organisation, Zaka.

Young children killed on 7 October 2023 include a four-year-old, two six-year-olds and two five-year-olds. The majority of children killed were aged between 12 and 17, with some killed by rocket fire.

For those killings, the ICC issued arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders - all of whom have since been killed by Israel - as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant.

Trump called the institution "out of control".

"An evil group of people," he said. "I call on all nations that are members of the ICC to officially resign from this rogue institution immediately."

'Do I drive them into hell?'

Honing in on Iran as the US-Israeli war on the country enters its seventh month, Trump again vowed that he would "never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon".

"Upon taking office last year, I immediately opened negotiations with Iran and offered them full economic cooperation in exchange for ending their nuclear programme and support for terror, but they refused. They absolutely refused," he told the general assembly.

Trump's 'sweeping' ICC sanctions over Netanyahu arrest warrant are imminent: Reports Read More »

While he earned some praise early in his presidency for choosing to pursue direct talks with Iran, Trump's dispatch of Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner came under fire for incompetence.

With US-allied Gulf nations buckling under a barrage of Iranian retaliatory attacks since March, and both the Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb waterway largely choked off by Iran and the Houthis in Yemen, Americans have seen gasoline prices skyrocket during what is already an affordability crisis in the US that has not much subsided since the Covid-19 pandemic.

At least 14 American military personnel have also been killed in the region, with nearly 600 others wounded.

Trump still teased a potential end to the conflict like an episode of his old reality show, "The Apprentice".

"Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before, maybe one of the greatest in the Middle East or even the world, or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again?" he told the UN.

"Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations?" he continued.

"But I believe we'll make a deal right after the election because it doesn't make sense for them not to. They're waiting to see how I do in the midterm election. What they don't realise is that I'm not running."

The midterm elections, set for 3 November, are expected to flip the House of Representatives from Republican to Democrat. The Senate may go the same way, or become equally divided. The results, as they are for every president after his first two years, are typically a referendum on the administration's policy agenda.

Trump fervently pushed back on reports from his own Department of War inspector general that the US is running low on weapons because of the cost of the Iran war to its regional allies.

"The cowards and traitors would love to say the United States is low on munitions, but that's not true. We have more munitions than we could ever possibly even think of using, and we're building them at levels that we have never done before," he said.

"We are adding to our stockpiles faster than we have ever been able to do before. Top-of-the-line stuff. In addition, in the very near future, massive munition plants will be opening. There are 18 of them being built by the greatest defence companies in the world right now," Trump added.

"I call on all nations to join us in enforcing the complete economic isolation of Iran until they stop their attacks on commercial shipping, relinquish their nuclear ambitions, and cease their support of terror."

'Years of unfinished business'

Tuesday's speech comes two weeks before the third anniversary of the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, and the subsequent Israeli assault on Gaza that the UN and Holocaust scholars have called a genocide.

It also comes three weeks before the 10 October 2025 ceasefire brokered by the Trump administration, though few obligations have been met by the Israelis in particular, who are still carrying out air strikes that have killed more than a dozen children this month. The UN secretary general, in his opening remarks, referred to these "so-called ceasefires" as "lesser fires".

Aid chief tells UN that US-backed Board of Peace is 'failing' Gaza Read More »

The death toll in Gaza is closing in on 74,000 identified bodies, according to the Palestinian health ministry. The final figure is expected to exceed 100,000 after remains of the missing are recovered from under the rubble, which has not yet begun to be cleared away.

Despite little progress from the "Board of Peace" for Gaza that Trump initiated last year, the president decided to read glowing reviews of the project - for which he is chairman for life - during his speech.

"The prime minister of Pakistan, terrific man, said that Donald Trump was responsible for saving 30 million lives and probably many more than that," Trump said. "The president of Azerbaijan said President Trump in six months [of his presidency] did a miracle... The prime minister of Armenia said this breakthrough would simply not have been possible without President Trump's personal engagement and his resolute commitment to peace."

The US president thanked the countries that contributed $1bn to the Board of Peace, despite reports that the World Bank account designated to collect relief funds is still empty.

And, in an exception to his general rule of attacking UN institutions, Trump also thanked the UN for approving the resolution outlining his 20-point plan for Gaza.

"I want to express my gratitude to the United Nations Security Council for their unanimous endorsement of our 20-point Gaza peace plan, and for officially approving the Board of Peace," he said.

The Trump administration did not initially include a reference to Palestinian self-determination in the text, but made the change to appease Muslim and Arab nations, which it hoped would provide troops for an "International Stabilisation Force" in the enclave.

Those Arab and Muslim nations engaged with the president on the issue during a short meeting on the sidelines of last year's UNGA. They are expected to do the same, this time focusing on Iran, later on Tuesday.

Cuba walks out

Part of Trump's confidence in starting a war on Iran on 28 February came from his quick abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in early January.

The focus on the western hemisphere is a core part of his administration's agenda, spurred on by his top diplomat, Marco Rubio, who has long maintained a hawkish foreign policy posture while in the Senate.

The government in Caracas, now overseen by Maduro's deputy, Delcy Rodriguez, is largely controlled from Washington, the New York Times reported earlier this year.

"Our actions in Venezuela are proof that the United States will no longer permit threats to America to gain a foothold anywhere in the western Hemisphere, and if necessary, we will use our unmatched military might to secure the vital national interests of the United States," Trump told the UNGA.

"Last month, we signed the largest oil deal in history, covering 65 billion barrels of oil, which will benefit both Venezuela and the United States enormously and help drive down the cost of energy all over the world," he added.

But the fruits of that deal in the US may not be felt for another decade, and critics have questioned whether the average Venezuelan's quality of life will be impacted at all.

Venezuela's ally, Cuba, where the Trump administration has imposed a crippling blockade that has worsened the island's energy crisis and all but shut down the electrical grid, found itself a target of Trump's speech on Tuesday, leading its UN delegation to leave the hall as the president spoke.

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He suggested that he is looking for regime change there, too.

"My administration is also seeking a fundamental change in the situation in Cuba, where the communist regime is under great pressure, the biggest pressure they've ever been under. It's an absolutely failed state," he said.

"It's failing like never before, and it will fall. Marco Rubio is handling a negotiation. He's deep into negotiations with Cuba. Let's see what happens."

As he reflected on the state of the world and the UN's record, Trump made another sweeping generalisation in insisting that "Christians are being persecuted all over the world".

This comes as officials in his administration, including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, have repeatedly said that the US ought to be a Christian nation, in spite of the constitution's separation of church and state.

"The craven hypocrites of the [UN] Human Rights Council have little to say about the persecution of Christians... I never thought I'd say it, but it's been happening for a long time," Trump said.

"Yet they want America to open up our borders to gangs that drive them from the world's most dangerous places," he added, referring to his administration's shutdown of the southern border, where human smugglers can be rife, but also his shutdown of several legal immigration pathways.

To conclude his speech, Trump offered what may be the only actual announcement of a policy change: Artificial Intelligence, he said, would henceforth be referred to in the US and in all official documents as "Super Intelligence".

Diplomacy 'UN General Assembly 2026': Trump talks up Iran, Israel, Latin America strategy News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0