United Nations: At this year's annual meeting the UN General Assembly, one of the most high-profile issues is the Palestinian statehood bid. Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is there to seek recognition as the organisation's 194th member state. Abbas, 76, said he will pursue all his options at the Security Council, the 15-member decision-making body, and the 193-member General Assembly. Here are answers to some questions about the issue.

What are the Palestinians seeking?

The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), considered the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, has had observer status at the UN since 1974. It has been allowed to participate in debates both in the General Assembly (GA) and the Security Council, but does not have voting rights. Now Palestinians are seeking full membership in the UN as a sovereign nation. If they succeed, it will give their quest for statehood crucial international backing, but it will not officially create a Palestinian state. 

When will it happen?

The Palestinian leadership is expected to submit its application for membership to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Friday, when President Abbas is scheduled to address the General Assembly. Ban will then pass on the application to the UN Security Council, which must review all membership bids. This may be all that happens on the statehood bid, procedurally, at the meeting. It could take months for any further developments. 

What happens next?

The Security Council will examine the application on the basis of four criteria: defined territory, a defined population, a government capable of controlling the territory, and the ability to enter into diplomatic relations.

Nine of the 15 Security Council members, including all five of the permanent members, must give a positive recommendation on the application for it to pass on the General Assembly for a vote.

The deadline for a response from the Security Council is unclear — the guidelines are that it must issue a recommendation 35 days before a regular General Assembly session or 14 days before a special session.

This is where the application for full membership is likely to run into trouble. The US, one of the permanent members, has made it clear that it will not give its stamp of approval to the Palestinians' bid. There is no way to go around the Security Council and straight to the General Assembly.

On the off chance that the US approves the Palestinian bid, then the application goes to the General Assembly for a two-thirds majority vote. Palestinians are widely seen as having enough support in the General Assembly for such a vote to pass. 

What are the Palestinians' current alternatives to the bid?

There's been some talk of using the so-called Uniting for Peace Resolution to circumvent US opposition to the membership bid.

The resolution, which can be used to overcome a persistent veto from a permanent member of the Security Council, was originally adopted in 1950 to overcome Russia's veto on international intervention in North and South Korea. But it is unlikely to be accepted as applicable in this case, says Diana Buttu, a former legal adviser to the Palestinian Liberation Organisation's negotiating team from 2000-05. Technically, the US would not be vetoing anything because it would merely be issuing a negative recommendation.

The PNA can also ask the General Assembly to upgrade its status from permanent observer entity to permanent observer state, a nonvoting status only Vatican City currently holds.

Such an upgrade has been touted as giving the Palestinians an important symbolic victory and moving them closer to eventual full membership. Some have expressed hope that the new status would make it possible for them to join the International Criminal Court and exert greater pressure on Israel via the court. But UN experts have said in recent days that ICC membership would not immediately follow an upgrade in UN status.

But Buttu says there is little tangible difference between the two. Becoming a permanent observer state does not bestow the PNA with voting capabilities, which is the main drawback to its current status as well.