United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has announced his support for an independent and sovereign state of Palestine, emphasizing that a Palestinian state is “long overdue.”

“But…the recognition of a state is something to be determined by the member states,” AFP quoted Ban as saying on Friday.

“It is not [determined] by the secretary general so I leave it to the member states to decide to recognize or not to recognize,” he added.

The remark came a day after Palestinians launched their “National Campaign for Palestine: State 194”.

Scores of Palestinians had on Thursday gathered in front of the UN building in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where they handed a letter addressed to Ban, urging him to add his “moral voice of support of the Palestinian people.”

The activists also said that they would stage continuous peaceful gatherings ahead of the UN General Assembly’s annual meeting on September 20.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) had earlier this year announced it would seek recognition of an independent state.

Meanwhile, the US special envoy to the Middle East traveled to Ramallah on Wednesday to try to convince the PA to ditch its efforts for the statehood recognition.

Palestinians say a future Palestinian state would include the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital. PA says it believes more than 130 countries would recognize the state of Palestine based on the pre-1967 borders.

However, Washington has repeatedly threatened to veto such a move at the UN Security Council.

(Press TV)