Taiwan’s government has helped 14 Taiwanese citizens leave Israel by land after the Middle Eastern country’s airspace was closed to civilian air traffic following recent escalations with Iran.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said the 14 Taiwanese left Israel and arrived in Jordan early Sunday by a bus arranged by Taiwan’s representative office in Israel.
Taiwan’s representative office in Jordan is now helping the Taiwan nationals return home, MOFA said in a press release.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Meanwhile, MOFA said it is in close contact with 9 Taiwanese citizens currently in Iran and will do its best to help if any of them wish to leave the country.
MOFA has since Friday raised its travel warning to an orange alert, advising Taiwan nationals to avoid traveling to Israel unless absolutely necessary. Also on Friday, MOFA raised the alert for Iran to the highest red alert level, urging Taiwanese nationals in the Islamic country to leave as soon as possible.
Under MOFA’s four-color travel alert system, the lowest level is gray, followed by yellow, orange and red.
The travel warnings were issued after Israel launched an airstrike against Iran, targeting the Iranian nuclear program, key government figures and nuclear scientists, killing at least 80 people and wounding 800 others over the past two days, according to a report in Al Jazeera.
Iran subsequently launched retaliatory airstrikes and tensions continue to escalate between the two countries.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
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