Sudan Recognizes Republic of South Sudan

Sudan on Friday announced its official recognition of the new Republic of South Sudan a day before its southern neighbor becomes the world's newest nation.

"The Republic of Sudan announces that it recognizes the Republic of South Sudan as an independent state, according to the borders existing on January 1, 1956," Minister of Presidential Affairs Bakri Hassan Saleh said in a statement broadcast on state television.

"The government of Sudan is committed to implementing the comprehensive peace agreement (CPA) and to resolving all the post-referendum issues," Saleh added.

The 2005 peace agreement that ended the devastating 22-year conflict between north and south Sudan paved the way for an independence referendum in January, in which southerners voted almost unanimously to secede.

Since the referendum, the two sides have failed to agree on a number of key outstanding issues, such as how to manage the country's oil, most of which lies in the south, demarcation of their contested common borders, and the future status of the disputed Abyei region.

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir vowed after the referendum results were announced that his government would be the first to recognize an independent south.

On Thursday he repeated his claim to want a secure and stable south and confirmed that he would attend Saturday's official celebrations in Juba.

But he also said that good future relations between the two countries depended on secure borders and non-interference in the each other's internal affairs.

Although a number of the most contentious issues between the two sides remain unresolved, reaching independence is a major achievement, the head of the Assessment and Evaluation Commission, the body overseeing the implementation of the 2005 peace agreement, said on Friday.

"Whatever other concerns there may be, there is a governing thought that this is a moment for celebration," Derek Plumbly told reporters in Juba, while lamenting the failure of the two sides to reach an overall agreement on their unresolved disputes.

"It is a pity that all of this is not consolidated in a single agreement ahead of July 9," he added.

Later on Friday, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution creating a U.N. mission in South Sudan that will include 7,000 peacekeepers and hundreds of civilians tasked with helping the fledgling nation.

The new mission, UNMISS, will take on a "vital role ... to support national authorities, in close consultation with international partners, to consolidate the peace and prevent a return to violence," stated the resolution.