Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit stressed the importance of an effective international action to stop the escalating Israeli violations against the Palestinians. Aboul Gheit met on Thursday with the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Process, Nickolay Mladenov, with whom he discussed latest developments in the Palestinian Cause and means to provide necessary support to the Palestinian people. The secretary general’s spokesman, Mahmoud Afifi, said that Mladenov assessed the overall developments and contacts he had recently conducted in this regard with the various parties concerned, especially with regard to the events that took place last month, which resulted in the death and injury of hundreds of people from the Gaza Strip, by the Israeli occupation forces. He also pointed that these developments created a negative atmosphere that did not serve the goal of reviving the political settlement between Palestinians and Israelis, according to Afifi. For his part, the secretary-general reviewed the dimensions of the current Arab stance towards developments in Gaza, reflected in the relevant resolutions of the recent Arab Summit held in Saudi Arabia (the Dhahran Summit) and the extraordinary meeting of the ministerial council of the Arab League. He stressed the need for the international community to exert strong and effective pressure on the Israeli side to stop the daily violations and crimes committed against the Palestinians and to ensure that the perpetrators of these violations are held accountable. In this context, Aboul Gheit emphasized the need for the Israeli authorities to shoulder their full responsibilities and obligations as an occupying power, in relation to the deterioration of the humanitarian and living conditions in the Gaza Strip.