An emergency meeting of the Arab Parliamentary Union (APU) kicked off at the headquarters of the Arab League (AL) in Cairo on Tuesday with the focus on the deteriorating situation in Lebanon, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported.

The report said that AL Secretary General Amr Moussa, Speaker of Egypt's People's Assembly Ahmed Fathi Sorour, Jordanian Parliament Speaker Abdel Hadi al-Majali attended the meeting along with speakers of other Arab parliaments.

During the meeting, Moussa expressed astonishment at the fact that the UN Security Council had not called for a ceasefire in Lebanon so far, saying that such a kind of thing was unprecedented in the last 60 years.

He accused the UN Security Council of "deliberately delaying taking action toward the crisis in the Middle East region in order to wait for a result in favor of Israel", according to the report.

The AL chief also asserted that the international silence on Israel's aggression would not help solve the crisis.

Conflict between Israel and Lebanon's Shiite group Hezbollah erupted when Hezbollah guerrillas kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others in cross-border attacks on July 12.

In response, Israel started a massive offensive in Lebanon while Hezbollah showered Israel's northern areas with rockets.

Over 350 Lebanese and more than 40 Israelis have been killed in the two-week-old violence.

Source: Xinhua