Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visited Turkey Friday, Sept 21, to seek grounds for the recognition of Palestine as a non-member state within its 1967 borders at the upcoming 67th session of the UN General Assembly, Hürriyet Daily News reported.

While visiting Ankara, Abbas met with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The Palestinians are currently a UN observer “entity” with no voting rights. A simple majority vote in the 193-member assembly would be enough to grant Palestinians non-member observer status, bypassing the Security Council, where the U.S. has previously threatened to veto the bid.

The Palestinian leader consulted with Turkey on the content of its request and about when would be the best time to press for a vote, since Washington is pressuring the Palestinian leadership to postpone its upgrade plans until after the U.S. elections in November.

Abbas will leave Turkey and head to New York on Sept 23.