Taiwan’s representative offices in Israel and Jordan would remain open despite an escalating conflict in the region, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
The ministry made the remark in response to questions about whether the offices would remain open after the US Department of State and German Federal Foreign Office asked some of their diplomats and family members to leave Lebanon following Israeli strikes that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday.
Taiwan’s office in Jordan is responsible for affairs related to Lebanon.
Photo: Reuters
“Due to the increased volatility following airstrikes within Beirut and the volatile and unpredictable security situation throughout Lebanon, the US Embassy urges US citizens to depart Lebanon while commercial options still remain available,” the State Department said on Saturday.
On the same day, the German Federal Foreign Office announced that it had further raised the crisis level for Germany’s representatives in Beirut, Ramallah and Tel Aviv due to the escalation in the Middle East.
Family members of employees at the German offices in the area should leave the service location and travel to a safe place in the region or return to Germany, it said.
Hezbollah on Saturday confirmed Nasrallah’s death after Israeli Defense Forces said he was killed in airstrikes on Dahieh, a suburb of the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
The Lebanese political organization Hezbollah, an ally of Iran and the Palestinian group Hamas, has been trading cross-border fire with the Israeli military since Israel’s assault on Gaza began in October last year, following a Hamas attack that same month.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs previously said that 266 Taiwanese citizens were in Israel as of late last month.
It also reiterated its advice to Taiwanese not to travel to Lebanon or Israel for safety reasons.
In an emergency, Taiwanese citizens in Israel should call its Tel Aviv office at +972-544-275-204, while those who need emergency assistance while in Lebanon should call Taiwan’s office in Jordan at +962-79-5552605, the ministry said.
The ministry has issued the highest-level red alert for Lebanon and the second-highest orange alert for Israel.
The ministry uses a four-tiered travel advisory system to represent safety and security risks.
The lowest level, gray, signifies that caution should be exercised, while yellow suggests travel should be reconsidered. Orange indicates that unnecessary travel should be avoided and red urges nationals not to travel to a destination.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei MRT is to begin accepting mobile payment services in the fall, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said on Saturday. When the company finishes the installation of new payment units at ticketing gates in October, MRT passengers can use credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, the operator said. In addition, the MRT would also provide QR payment codes — which would be compatible with Line Pay, Jkopay, iPass Money, PXPay Plus, EasyWallet, iCash Pay, Taiwan Pay and Taishin Pay — to access the railway system. Currently, passengers can access the Taipei MRT by buying a single-journey token or using EasyCard,
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