Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said on Saturday that the Middle East peace process is "dead" after an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers.

Moussa made the remark at a joint press conference with State Minister for Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates Mohamed Hussein al-Shaali, whose country currently holds the presidency of the Arab Foreign Ministers Council.

"All of mechanisms, including the international quartet, have failed to push ahead with the peace process," Moussa said.

The emergency meeting was called by the 22-member pan-Arab forum to discuss Israel's military escalation in south Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.

The quartet -- the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations -- sponsors the peace process in the Middle East.