“We will go to the UN General Assembly for consultations with our friends on the draft resolution calling for the upgrade of Palestine (to non-member status)” in the United Nations, Mr Abbas said in a televised speech in Ramallah.

“We are going to the UN to say that we are a state which applies the fourth Geneva convention. There are 133 countries that recognise us as a state with east Jerusalem as its capital and where we have embassies raising the Palestinian flag.”

The Palestinians are currently a UN observer “entity” with no voting rights. PA minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad al- Malki told reporters last month that Mahmoud Abbas will ask for non-member observer status at the U.N General Assembly in his speech in late September, an upgrade they expect to establish the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in 1967, as Palestinian territories.

A simple majority vote in the 193-member General Assembly would be enough to grant Palestinians non-member observer status, bypassing the Security Council where the United States, Israel’s ally, has previously threatened to veto the bid.

The United States and Israel argue that a Palestinian state can only be established in negotiations with Israel. However, Israeli-Palestinian have been stalled since 2008.

A few weeks ago,Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) executive committee member, Saleh Raafat, said Washington was pressuring the Palestinian leadership to postpone its upgrade plans until after the US elections in November.

Meanwhile, Abbas held the Hamas Islamist group ruling Gaza responsible for the failure of national reconciliation efforts during his speech.  “Reconciliation means elections, and wanting to establish an independent emirate in Gaza is not going to work,” Abbas said.

He added that those who dealt with Haniyeh as a prime minister were deepening divisions among the Palestinians, the PA president said. “Ismail Haniyeh is not the prime minister,” he said, referring to Haniyeh’s visit to Mohamed Mursi in Cairo.

During his speech Abbas also said that government employees would not receive full salaries in October because donor countries have not delivered promised aid they have promised, leaving the Palestinian Authority that governs much of the West Bank in a budgetary shortfall that has contributed to rising prices and delays in the payment of government salaries, according to Haaretz. The economic situation has sparked demonstrations in the West Bank.

Further, the number of travelers leaving the enclave will rise to 1,500 a day. Furthermore, he said, an agreement has been reached that any Palestinian citizen who arrives in Egypt from other countries will be granted a 72-hour visa, so as to make travel arrangements and avoid being deported, Maan news writes.

The decision came after Haniyeh met Egypt’s newly elected President Mohamed Mursi in Cairo this week. Officials have also committed to increase the flow of fuel supplied to Gaza via Egypt, Reuters reported. “Three major steps will be carried out to solve the power crisis starting with an increase in the amount of fuel to Gaza’s power plant in tandem with amplifying the power grid from Egypt to Gaza from 22 to 30 megawatt. After that, a gas pipeline will be built to provide Egyptian natural gas to the sole power plant in the coastal enclave, according to Maan news.

It will be the first time the Rafah crossing will be open for so many hours since 2005. Mursi’s victory was celebrated in Gaza as a turning point for a territory whose economy has been affected by a blockade imposed by Israel. Former president Hosni Mubarak also backed the Israeli blockage of Gaza by maintaining the Rafah crossing closed at all times. After former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in an uprising last year and the Muslim Brotherhood was elected into power this year a big shift in Cairo’s stance toward the Hamas movement changed improved ties.