UNITED NATIONS – International donors announced in London yesterday that they will cease to aid Palestinian Arabs who vow to destroy Israel and refuse to renounce terror. Slashing aid to those living in Hamas-controlled territories, however, ultimately may prove difficult as some foreign organizations harbor sympathy for Palestinian Arabs seen as dependent on donations.

The Bush administration, which opposes providing support to a Hamas-controlled government, yesterday convinced representatives of Russia, the European Union, and Secretary-General Annan – collectively known, with America, as “the quartet” – that a Hamas government would have to renounce violence and recognize Israel before receiving future international aid.

According to a British newspaper, the Guardian, America’s tough public stance is coupled with fears of “chaos” erupting in Palestinian Arab territories once foreign assistance ends. “Western diplomats said yesterday the United States had already contacted Arab governments that give the Palestinian Authority support and requested them to go on with it,” the paper reported.

Details of defunding would have to be worked out, but Israel has announced that while it awaits composition of the government in Ramallah, Jerusalem will freeze all transfers to the Palestinian Authority. After Hamas won a set of municipal elections last year, however, the flow of international aid did not stop, and while Jerusalem rejected any communication with Hamas mayors, it has not disconnected services that Israel provides, such as water and electricity, to Hamas-controlled towns.

Mr. Annan read yesterday’s statement, which was agreed upon in London by the quartet’s foreign ministers. “Future assistance to any new government would be reviewed by donors against that government’s commitment to the principles of nonviolence, recognition of Israel, and the acceptance of previous agreements and obligations, including the road map,” it said. A similar statement is expected to be accepted today at Turtle Bay by the U.N. Security Council.

Hamas countered immediately. “The quartet should have demanded an end to occupation and aggression,” a Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, said according to Reuters. In its charter, Hamas defines all of Israel as occupied Muslim land and Mr. Bush yesterday said that as long as it does so, America will forgo assistance to any government it controls.

“The Hamas party has made it clear that they do not support the right of Israel to exist, and I have made it clear so long as that’s their policy that we will not support a Palestinian government made up of Hamas,” Mr. Bush said at the White House after a Cabinet meeting.

Jerusalem welcomed the quartet statement. There is a “growing international consensus that things could not continue with the Palestinian Authority in a business-as-usual manner,” a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Mark Regev, told The New York Sun. A Hamas-controlled government, he said, “will turn the Palestinian Authority into a pariah.”

Mr. Annan was more conciliatory, telling reporters that the statement’s conditions did not mean that “one is walking away from Hamas.” If the organization will accept those conditions, “and transform itself from an armed movement into a political party respecting the rules of the game and representing its people, I think the international community should be able to work with them,” he said.

The Palestinian Authority was created after the 1993 Oslo agreements and was controlled since then by the Yasser Arafat-headed, secular-oriented party, Fatah. One billion dollars of its $1.6 billion annual budget comes from European countries, and the rest comes from other international donors, including $70 million from America. Israel collects taxes for the Palestinian Authority and transfers to it $50 million each month.

Last week, Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization by America and the European Union, for the first time contested Fatah in a legislative election. After winning two-thirds of the parliament seats, Hamas is now set to control the Palestinian Authority.

Last year, Hamas won control of some of the most important cities in a set of municipal elections in Gaza and the West Bank. “We have a long-standing relationship with most major municipalities in the territories,” the U.N. Development Program’s spokesman, William Orme, told the Sun. International assistance to those municipalities continued unabated.

UNDP assists development of civil institutions in the territories. Hamas believes those institutions should be guided by Islamic law and anti-Israel teachings. The decision of how to proceed with such programs is guided by policy makers, led by America, and not by UNDP. “Like all development agencies,” Mr. Orme said, “UNDP is answerable to those who provide its funding.”

Explaining why Israel shied away from cutting off services to areas under Hamas control, Mr. Regev, said, “We did not talk to any of those Hamas representatives.” He added, “We have no interest to hurt the Palestinian people. We will need to live with them in peace.”