TAIPEI — Taiwan’s three main political parties agreed on Thursday to authorize its government to sign US agreements for four arms sales packages, after officials warned that Taipei would go to the back of the line if it missed the deadline.

The back and forth on Taiwan’s defense spending has provoked concern in the United States, as it is the most important international backer and arms supplier of the Chinese-claimed island, despite a lack of formal diplomatic ties.

President Lai Ching-te’s government has tried to get parliament to pass $40 billion in extra defense spending but the opposition, which controls the most seats, says the proposals are unclear, and it cannot be expected to pass “blank cheques” despite supporting defense.

Both opposition parties have come up with their own, less expensive proposals, but the defense ministry has said the letters of offer and acceptance for the weapons with the United States have to be signed or Taiwan would lose its place in the production and delivery queue.

Lawmakers from both sides agreed during a meeting of parliament’s foreign affairs and defense committee that the government can still sign the agreements in advance, even if the reviews of the spending proposals are not approved in time.

The weapons to be signed for include TOW anti-tank missiles, M109A7 self-propelled howitzers, Lockheed Martin-made Javelin missiles and the HIMARS multiple launch rocket system.

On Tuesday, Defense Minister Wellington Koo told reporters the HIMARS letter expired on March 26, for 82 systems the US announced as part of an $11-billion arms sale package for Taiwan.

Sunday is the deadline to sign for the other weapons systems, the ministry says.

Last month, a bipartisan group of 37 US lawmakers voiced concern to senior Taiwan lawmakers about the stalled plans.

The Trump administration has pressed allies to increase defense spending, a plank Mr. Lai and his government have enthusiastically embraced. — Reuters

BEIJING — The first passenger train service between Beijing and Pyongyang is set to leave China’s capital on Thursday, ending a six-year gap, as China moves to shore up cross-border infrastructure and rebuild ties with its neighbor.

Train K27 will arrive in the North Korean capital at 6:07 p.m. (0907 GMT) on Friday, after a journey of 24 hours and 41 minutes skirting north of the Bohai Sea with a stopover in the border city of Dandong, China’s railway authority said.

China and North Korea are “friendly neighbors” and a cross-border passenger train service facilitates people-to-people exchanges, a foreign ministry spokesperson told reporters on Thursday.

China also backs stronger communication between both sides to ease such exchanges, the spokesperson added.

The service was suspended when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2020.

North Korea is largely closed to foreign tourism, with few exceptions, largely ⁠for Russian tour groups under restricted arrangements, say travel agencies organizing trips to the country.

RESTRICTED TICKETS
The service linking the capitals will operate four days a week in both directions, running on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, China’s railways said in a notice.

Tickets, restricted to business visa holders, were sold out for Thursday’s trip, but those for March 18 were still available, a Beijing travel agency said.

The shorter Dandong-Pyongyang link will operate daily in both directions, with the first service leaving China’s northeastern city of Dandong at 10 am on Thursday to arrive in Pyongyang at 6:07 pm, the official news agency Xinhua said.

Cross-border flights were also halted during the pandemic.

North Korea’s state carrier Air Koryo resumed flights to China in 2023 and now offers services between the capitals twice weekly on Tuesdays and Saturdays, its website booking service showed. — Reuters

WASHINGTON — The US will release 172 million barrels of oil from its strategic petroleum reserve in a bid to reduce oil prices that have soared due to supply shocks from the US-Israeli war on Iran, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Wednesday.

Mr. Wright said the release is part of a broader release of 400 million barrels of oil agreed to by the 32-nation International Energy Agency earlier in the day.

Mr. Wright said the release will begin next week and will take about 120 days to deliver.

The US and Israel began attacks on Iran on February 28. Iran has responded with its own strikes on Israel ‌and Gulf ⁠countries with US bases.

Raising the stakes for the global economy, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it would block oil shipments from the Gulf unless the US and Israeli attacks cease. The war has shaken markets around the world.

When asked earlier on Wednesday whether he was looking at the threshold for the strategic petroleum reserve, President Donald ​Trump said Washington will “reduce it a little bit.”

“The United States has arranged to more than replace these strategic reserves with approximately 200 million barrels within the next year,” the US energy secretary said in a statement. — Reuters

WASHINGTON — The FBI warned law enforcement agencies last month of the possibility that Tehran might try to retaliate for any US strikes on Iran by launching surprise drone attacks in California, according to a security bulletin seen by Reuters.

The confidential alert, issued by the FBI through the multi-agency Los Angeles Joint Regional Intelligence Center, surfaced publicly on Wednesday as the war that began on February 28 with massive US and Israeli bombardments of Iran stretched into its 12th day.

Iran, whose supreme leader and other top officials were killed in air strikes, has fought back with missile and drone aircraft attacks against Israel and several Gulf states that host US military installations.

Several US soldiers were killed on the second day of the war in an attack on a base in Kuwait.

Speaking to reporters at the White House before ABC News first broke word of the FBI security bulletin, President Donald Trump shrugged off the notion of Iran-backed attacks on the US homeland.

California Governor Gavin Newsom said he was not aware of any “imminent threats” to the state.

An unclassified copy of the security bulletin obtained by Reuters was undated. But the prospective wording of the text makes clear it was issued before the outbreak of hostilities, and that the potential for Iranian revenge attacks on the US homeland was already contemplated.

It cited FBI information that as of early February, Iran “allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using unmanned aerial vehicles” launched from a sea vessel against targets in California “in the event that the US conducted strikes against Iran.”

“We have no additional information on the timing, method, target, or perpetrators” of any such attack, the bulletin added.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation declined to comment on the bulletin.

CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR NOT AWARE OF ANY IMMINENT THREATS

The US and Israeli strikes on Iran quickly widened into a broader regional conflict with broad consequences for worldwide energy and stock markets.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has sought to block vital oil shipping lanes through the Strait of Hormuz, driving up global fossil fuel prices. The war also has spilled over into Lebanon, with Israel’s military exchanging strikes with Iran-backed Hezbollah forces in and around Beirut.

Asked on Wednesday if he were worried that Iran may ramp up its retaliation to include strikes on US soil, Mr. Trump told reporters, “No, I’m not.”

The governor’s office said the bulletin was one of many security updates the state received from federal partners daily. California, it said, had elevated its security posture since the start of the conflict.

In a message posted on X, Mr. Newsom said he was “in constant coordination with security and intelligence officials” to monitor “potential threats to California — including those tied to the conflict in the Middle East.”

“While we are not aware of any imminent threats at this time, we remain prepared for any emergency in our state,” he said.

Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles, California’s most populous city, said her office and the Los Angeles Police Department were “coordinating closely with state and federal partners to keep Angelenos safe.”

She added, “At this time, there is no specific or credible threat to Los Angeles.”

Reuters reported earlier this month that Iran and its proxies could target the US with attacks.

A threat assessment produced by the US Department of Homeland Security said Iran ​and its proxies “probably” pose a threat of targeted attacks on the United States, although a large-scale ​physical strike was unlikely. — Reuters

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON — US intelligence indicates that Iran’s leadership is still largely intact and is not at risk of collapse any time soon after nearly two weeks of relentless US and Israeli bombardment, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

A “multitude” of intelligence reports provide “consistent analysis that the regime is not in danger” of collapse and “retains control of the Iranian public,” said one of the sources, all of whom were granted anonymity to discuss US intelligence findings.

The latest report was completed within the last few days, the source said.

With political pressure building over soaring oil costs, President Donald Trump has suggested he will end the biggest US military operation since 2003 “soon.” But finding an acceptable end to the war could be difficult if Iran’s hardline leaders remain firmly entrenched.

The intelligence reporting underscores the cohesion of Iran’s clerical leadership despite the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on February 28, the first day of the US and Israeli strikes.

Israeli officials in closed discussions also have acknowledged there is no certainty the war will lead to the clerical government’s collapse, a senior Israeli official told Reuters.

The sources stressed that the situation on the ground is fluid and that the dynamics inside Iran could change.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Central Intelligence Agency declined to comment.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

SHIFTING OBJECTIVES

Since launching their war, the US and Israel have struck a range of Iranian targets, including air defenses, nuclear sites, and members of the senior leadership.

The Trump administration has given varying reasons for the war. In announcing the beginning of the US operation, Mr. Trump urged Iranians to “take over your government,” but top aides have since denied that the objective was to oust Iran’s leadership.

In addition to Mr. Khamenei, the strikes have killed dozens of senior officials and some of the highest-ranking commanders in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an elite paramilitary force that controls large parts of the economy.

Still, the US intelligence reports indicate that the IRGC and the interim leaders who assumed power after Mr. Khamenei’s death retain control of the country.

The Assembly of Experts, a group of senior Shiite clerics, earlier this week declared Mr. Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba, the new supreme leader.

Israel has no intention of allowing any remnants of the former government to stay intact, said a fourth source familiar with the matter.

It is unclear how the current US-Israeli military campaign would topple the government.

It would likely require a ground offensive that would allow people inside Iran to safely protest in the streets, said the source.

The Trump administration has not ruled out sending US troops into Iran.

INTELLIGENCE SUGGESTS KURDS LACK FIREPOWER TO FIGHT IRAN

Reuters reported last week that Iranian Kurdish militias based in neighboring Iraq consulted with the US about how and whether to attack Iran’s security forces in the western part of the country.

Such an incursion could put pressure on Iranian security services there, allowing Iranians to rise up against the government.

Abdullah Mohtadi, the head of the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan, part of a six-party coalition of Iranian Kurdish parties, said in an interview on Wednesday that the parties are highly organized inside Iran and that “tens of thousands of young people are ready to take up arms” against the government if they receive US support.

Mr. Mohtadi said he has received reports from inside Iranian Kurdistan that IRGC units and other security forces have abandoned bases and barracks out of fear of US and Israeli strikes.

“We have been witnessing tangible signs of weakness in Kurdish areas,” he said.

But recent US intelligence reports have cast doubt on the ability of the Iranian Kurdish groups to sustain a fight against Iranian security services, according to two sources familiar with those assessments.

The intelligence indicates that the groups lack the firepower and numbers, they said.

The Kurdish Regional Government, which governs the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan where the Iranian Kurdish groups are based, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Iranian Kurdish groups have in recent days asked senior officials in Washington and US lawmakers for the US to provide them with weapons and armored vehicles, another person familiar with the matter said.

But Mr. Trump said on Saturday that he had ruled out having the Iranian Kurdish groups go into Iran. — Reuters