Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the UN General Assembly on Thursday that Palestine will continue to obtain full membership at the UN and that it has already begun intensive consultations with regional organizations and member states.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the General Debate of the 67th session of the UN General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York, the United States, Sept. 27, 2012, as the week-long event entered into its third day here on Thursday. Abbas told the UN General Assembly on Thursday that Palestine will continue to obtain full membership at the UN and that it has already begun intensive consultations with regional organizations and member states. [Shen Hong/Xinhua]

"In order to enhance the chances of peace, we will continue our efforts to obtain full membership for Palestine at the United Nations," he said.

Abbas told the General Assembly that his country has begun " intensive consultations" with various regional organizations and member states aimed at "having the General Assembly adopt a resolution considering the State of Palestine as a non-member state of the UN during this session."

"We are confident that the vast majority of the countries of the world support out endeavor aimed at salvaging the chances for a just peace," he said.

Abbas officially applied to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for Palestine's admission to UN membership during the 66th session of the UN General Assembly last year, but failed to muster enough votes at the UN Security Council to get the recognition.

Palestine now has permanent observer status as an entity at the UN.

Abbas accused Israel of continuing its construction and expansion of settlements in different areas throughout the West Bank and continued its suffocating blockade as well as raids and attacks against Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

According to Abbas, attacks by terrorist militias of Israeli settlers have become a daily reality, with at least 535 attacks perpetrated since the beginning of this year.

The Palestinian president warned the international community that there maybe a "last chance" to save the two-state solution and to salvage peace.

Meanwhile, Abbas said Palestine has shown seriousness and sincere intention to conduct exploratory talks with the Israeli government at the beginning of this year, and to undertake initiatives to create favorable conditions for the resumption of negotiations.

The peace talk between Israel and Palestine has witnessed little progress since it broke down in 2010 over disputes on Jewish settlement activities in east Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Both Israel and the United States oppose the Palestinian bid and demand the Palestinians to resolve the conflict with Israel through direct peace negotiations. 

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