{"id":211388,"date":"2026-05-22T13:30:47","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T13:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-navy-chief-says-14bn-arms-sale-to-taiwan-paused-due-to-iran-war-bbc\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T13:30:47","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T13:30:47","slug":"us-navy-chief-says-14bn-arms-sale-to-taiwan-paused-due-to-iran-war-bbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-navy-chief-says-14bn-arms-sale-to-taiwan-paused-due-to-iran-war-bbc\/","title":{"rendered":"US navy chief says $14bn arms sale to Taiwan paused due to Iran war &#8211; BBC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The US is pausing a $14bn (\u00a310.4bn) arms sale to Taiwan to ensure it has enough weapons for the Iran war, acting Navy secretary Hung Cao has said.<br \/>Cao confirmed this at a Senate hearing, days after President Donald Trump appeared non-committal about the sale following his meetings with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.<br \/>A spokesperson for Taiwan&#x27;s presidential office told reporters on Friday that they had not received any information about &quot;US adjustments to the arms sale&quot;.<br \/>The sale of US arms to Taiwan has long irked Beijing, which claims the self-governed island as its territory and has not ruled out taking it by force.<br \/>&quot;Right now we&#x27;re doing a pause in order to make sure we have the munitions we need for Epic Fury &#8211; which we have plenty,&quot; Cao said at the hearing on Thursday, using the code name for the US-Israel joint military operation in Iran.<br \/>&quot;We&#x27;re just making sure we have everything, but then the foreign military sales will continue when the administration deems necessary.&quot;<br \/>When asked what he had heard from the Taiwanese about a pause in the weapons sale, Cao said he had &quot;not spoken to the Taiwanese&quot;.<br \/>The $14bn package has been waiting for Trump&#x27;s approval for months. It includes air defence missiles, such as Lockheed Martin&#x27;s PAC-3, and surface-to-air missile systems, according to a Reuters report in March.<br \/>Trump has yet to confirm that he would give final approval to the package, telling Fox News last week that it was &quot;a very good negotiating chip&quot; with China. <br \/>He also told reporters he would &quot;make a determination over the next fairly short period&quot; on the weapons sale to Taiwan.<br \/>Those comments came fresh off a presidential summit in Beijing, where Xi had told Trump that Taiwan was the most important issue between the US and China.<br \/>Trump later told reporters that he had discussed US arms sales to Taiwan &quot;in great detail&quot; with Xi &#8211; even though according to a 1982 US assurance to Taiwan, the US had pledged not to consult Beijing on the matter.<br \/>Trump has also said he would <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/c78qv3w4xzqo\" class=\"sc-2554282c-0 cDYatN\">talk directly to Taiwanese leader Lai Ching-te<\/a> about the sale, which would be a sharp departure from diplomatic tradition and is likely to anger Beijing.<br \/>US and Taiwanese leaders have not spoken directly for decades, although Trump spoke to Lai&#x27;s predecessor Tsai Ing-wen when Trump was president-elect.<br \/>Beijing had lodged vehement opposition last December when the US approved a $11bn (\u00a38.2bn) arms sale to Taiwan &#8211; one of the largest such packages ever. China&#x27;s foreign ministry said at the time it would &quot;accelerate the push towards a dangerous and violent situation across the Taiwan Strait&quot;.<br \/>Taiwan&#x27;s leader Lai Ching-te has emphasised that US arms sales were a &quot;key factor in maintaining regional peace and stability&quot;. <br \/>Under Lai, Taiwan has significantly ramped up its defence spending in response to growing military pressure from China.<br \/>The event is cancelled due to the uncertainty over access to RAF Fairford as the conflict continues.<br \/>Twisha Sharma, a model and actor, had been married for just five months when she was found dead.<br \/>Police are seeking an arrest warrant for a YouTuber who allegedly fabricated evidence to defame actor Kim Soo-hyun.<br \/>The India-Africa summit was set to be held next week in Delhi after more than a decade.<br \/>The summit bonanza comes after a late start to this climbing season due to earlier route obstructions.<br \/>Copyright 2026 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\u00a0<a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/editorialguidelines\/guidance\/links-and-feeds\" class=\"sc-2554282c-0 cDYatN\"><b id=\"read-about-our-approach-to-external-linking.\" class=\"sc-4029fe79-0 kORWLB\">Read about our approach to external linking.<\/b><\/a><br \/>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/rss\/articles\/CBMiWkFVX3lxTE9DQmx5Vm9oZTlhYXo0dVlDaHI1VUQ5eElKNEZlSWo0b3dMOXRoaGJyakl0RTlocU1hRDhBUC04SXRyaGJLSmJiTDAwRHlERzRDY2g4Qlk3WVpjUQ?oc=5\">source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The US is pausing a $14bn (\u00a310.4bn) arms sale to Taiwan to ensure it has enough weapons for the Iran war, acting Navy secretary Hung Cao has said.Cao confirmed this at a Senate hearing, days after President Donald Trump appeared non-committal about the sale following his meetings with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.A spokesperson for Taiwan&#x27;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":211389,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}