A rather amazing statement today from the so-called “quartet:” Mediators Tell Palestinians to Reform or Lose Aid.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The quartet of Middle East mediators are “sick and tired” of Palestinians failing to carry out reforms and told them on Wednesday to act soon or risk losing international support and aid, diplomats said.

In another sign of growing pressure for change on besieged leader Yasser Arafat, results from grassroots elections for his Fatah movement in the Gaza Strip showed reformers sweeping the field, Fatah officials said.

Sapped by years of corruption and disorder as well as Israeli raids, Arafat’s Palestinian Authority needs foreign help to fill a power vacuum when Israel quits the Gaza Strip next year or if it hopes to revive peace talks with the Jewish state.

But envoys from the United States, United Nations and European Union and Russia told Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie that the world had run out of patience with Arafat’s “empty promises” of reform.

“If security reforms are not done, there will be no (more) international support and no funding from the international community,” a senior diplomat close to the talks in the West Bank city of Ramallah told Reuters.

In a statement, the quartet said action was crucial to salvage a moribund “road map” peace plan for a Palestinian state on land captured by Israel in a 1967 war and to “seize the opportunity represented by Israel’s Gaza withdrawal.”