Shanghai meeting on Iran reaches consensus

SHANGHAI: Senior officials from the five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany yesterday reached a consensus on the major part of a plan to restart talks with Iran over its nuclear development, vowing to adopt "creative thinking" to address the long-lasting problem.

"We held in-depth talks on a wide range of aspects of the plan to resume the talks, including nuclear energy, political mutual trust building and economic cooperation," Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs He Yafei, who represented China in presiding over the meeting, said at a press briefing yesterday afternoon after the closed one-day discussion.

"I can tell you that positive progress has been made during the talks and the meeting was a constructive one ... We have reached consensus on the main part of the plan, despite some issues left for further discussion," He said, without revealing details.