Iran 'Respects' South Sudan Independence

Iran "respects" South Sudan's choice of independence, the foreign ministry said on Sunday, less than two weeks after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticized partition of Africa's largest nation.

"Now that developments have led to the formation of an independent government in South Sudan, Iran respects the southerners' choice," said a ministry statement carried by the official IRNA news agency.

Less than a week before South Sudan broke away from the north to create the world's newest nation state, Ahmadinejad hit out at Western governments for "tearing apart" Sudan while rejecting the demands of separatists on their own soil, according to his website.

"Those who are concerned about realizing the rights of a group of Sudanese people and are seeking to declare the south as independent, how come they do not share this concern for the people of Spain's Basque (Country), Northern Ireland, France's Corsica, or the southern states of America?" he asked.

South Sudan became the United Nations 193rd member state on Thursday after declaring independence on July 9. Southerners voted almost unanimously to break away in a January referendum that was the centerpiece of a 2005 peace deal between north and south.