Palestine will obtain a status of non-member state in the UN General Assembly, after which a full membership application will be sent to the UN Security Council, the Palestinian Authority minister of foreign affairs said Saturday.

Riyad al-Maliki told a news conference in Ramallah that President Mahmoud Abbas would address the UN General Assembly on September 27 and announce that Palestine wants to submit an application for the status of non-member state.

Then, the PA will contact world states and groups to compose an appropriate application and make sure it has a majority of member states supporting the bid before it is submitted.

A date for submitting the application has not been set yet, al-Maliki added.

The number of member states of the UN General Assembly is 193, he said, and Palestine will seek to get a majority of 180 member states to vote in favor. That requires "huge efforts" and negotiations in addition to wording the application in a way that will be acceptable to conservative member states.

The US attitude, al-Maliki added, has not changed since 2011 when the American president urged Abbas not to submit the UN bid.

Al-Maliki dismissed claims about some Arab countries exerting pressure on the Palestinian leadership to prevent them from submitting the new UN bid. “On the contrary, Arab countries are supportive as they completely understand how necessary the UN membership is for the Palestinians.”

(Ma'an)