On 30 January 2006, the Middle East Quartet — comprising the United States, Russia, United Nations, and European Union – issued a statement, saying that "It is the view of the Quartet that all members of a future Palestinian government must be committed to nonviolence, recognition of Israel, and acceptance of previous agreements and obligations, including the Roadmap," and concluded that it was inevitable that future assistance to any new government would be reviewed by donors against that government's commitment to those principles, which Hamas rejected. Although the Quartet formally did not call for sanctions and did not explicitly prohibit the provision of aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority (PA), but rather called for aid to be 'reviewed' against the three principles, a combination of political pressure and US threats of sanctions against banks handling aid monies served to halt transfers to the PA.