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

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