Room of the United Nations General Assembly. Photo: wiki commons.

At a meeting with Israeli Members of Knesset, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas told MK Zehava Gal-On (Meretz) that he will proceed with plans in September to ask the UN General Assembly for recognition of a Palestinian state for the second year in a row, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Despite Abbas’s plan to go to the UN again, he insists that he still supports a two-state solution, telling the Israeli MK, “We want to live peacefully next to Israel. The decision to go to the UN is not an alternative to the peace negotiations, but an option for preserving the two-state solution.”

Last year, Abbas caused an international uproar and drew condemnation from the U.S., Israel and some European states over a unilateral bid to have the UN admit Palestine (West Bank and Gaza) as a member state. Ultimately, Abbas’s initiative failed, as he was unable to garner the necessary votes in the UN Security Council.