Officials yesterday expressed reservations over an idea proposed by KMT lawmakers for Taiwan to airlift and treat Iraqi children injured in the recent war there.
The foreign ministry said during the meeting that one of the main problems was getting US approval for transportation from Iraq now that the country's air traffic control system is under US control.
"We consider the extreme international disruption [from the war], which the foreign ministry pointed out, as the most difficult challenge to such a proposal," said KMT Legislator Hsu Chung-hsiung (
Hsu spoke after a closed-door meeting in which officials from several ministries briefed KMT legislators on their initial evaluation of the plan.
"The United States has been dominant in providing post-war aid to Iraq, leaving little room for participation by other countries," said Su Jun-pin (
The ministry report also said it would take up to 14 hours to fly from Baghdad to Taipei, a journey that would require going via Abu Dabi in the absence of direct links.
Cultural differences between Iraqis and Taiwanese could also raise problems when handling visiting Iraqi children and their families, the ministry's report said.
Officials from the Department of Health and the Ministry of Transport and Communications said there would be only minor difficulties for Taiwan in receiving Iraqi children in need of urgent medical assistance.
Su said KMT legislators asked the officials to present a final report within two weeks on the progress made realizing the plan.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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