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Plans for an multinational stabilisation force mandated by the United Nations to disarm Hamas in Gaza are encountering increasing resistance after the United Arab Emirates stated it will not take part due to the lack of a well-defined legal structure.

Increasing Global Reservations

Israel have already excluded Turkish involvement, and Jordan's King Abdullah has declared that Jordanian forces will not join. Azerbaijan, once mooted as a potential participant, was absent from a planning meeting in Istanbul and said it would not contribute unless a full ceasefire was established.

The UAE lacks clarity on a defined framework for the stability mission and in this situation will not participate, but backs all political efforts towards peace – and stay at the vanguard of humanitarian aid.

Regional Doubts and Legal Concerns

The Emirati decision, made by senior envoy Dr Anwar Gargash at a forum in Abu Dhabi, reflects regional reservations about the terms of a American-proposed resolution previously circulated to delegates at the UN in New York. The draft assigns responsibility on a American-led security mission to be the primary means of ensuring security in the territory after Israel have left the territory.

Regional governments would like greater duties to be given to a distinct Palestinian civilian police force. Global jurisprudence would also prohibit external forces from deploying into contested Palestinian territories unless there was explicit Palestinian consent; otherwise, the mission could be seen as imposed under UN law, and potentially stabilising an illegal presence.

Local Viewpoints and Appeals for Clarity

Jamal Nusseibeh of the Palestinian armistice plan said: “It is essential that the force be deployed not to stabilise the illegal presence, but to enforce global standards and end it. The mission will succeed as long as it operates in the entire occupied territory, including the occupied territories, at the request of Palestine, and has a defined objective to conclude the presence within the framework of a sovereign state of Palestine.”

There is no mention to the occupied territories in the American proposal, or to a Palestinian state, or a two-state solution, a outcome that Israel rejects.

Continuing Discussions and Potential Dangers

In-depth talks on the mission authority, including its command and control, started formally on last week in New York, and look likely to be lengthy – potentially creating the development of a power gap in the strip that may strengthen militant factions.

The US is proposing that it lead the mission although it will not have many troops deployed on the terrain. It has already effectively taken control of the distribution of relief supplies into Gaza from a recently established civil military coordination centre based in the neighboring country.

Mission Objectives and Governance Function

The proposed US resolution outlines the purpose of the security mission as “along with the recently prepared and screened police force to assist in protecting frontier zones, stabilise the security environment in Gaza by guaranteeing the procedure of demilitarising the Gaza Strip including the destruction and blocking of reconstructing the military terror and hostile facilities as well as the permanent removal of weapons from militant factions”.

The mission, answerable to a “peace council” led by Donald Trump, and not to the UN, would be required to use “any required actions” to achieve its objectives.

Regional powers including Qatar are also concerned that this mandate is overly broad, and if Hamas is to disarm, the faction will only do so to fellow Palestinians, probably in the civilian police force, at a time that, from the militant viewpoint, signifies the end of occupation.

They also fear the draft mandate extends to granting the stabilisation force a administrative role in the territory, a task that was to be set aside for a Palestinian technocratic committee working in cooperation with a reformed Palestinian Authority.

Humanitarian Aspects and Funding Questions

This “interim authority” in the strip would remain until “the local government has adequately finished its reform program, the approval of which shall be acceptable to the board of peace”, the proposal says. It also “underscores the significance” of unhindered humanitarian aid in Gaza, including through the United Nations, the ICRC, and the Red Crescent.

Nonetheless, it allows for the removal of “any group determined to have improperly used such aid”. The phrase leaves open the board of peace excluding Unrwa, the organization that the global judicial body has said is the lawful distributor of aid.

International Political Initiatives

France and Saudi Arabia are already pressing for a reference to a sovereign Palestine to be included in the document. The Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman, is scheduled in the US presidential residence on 18 November, and a Saudi foreign ministry official has said that a reference to a independent Palestine is a requirement.

The PA chair, Mahmoud Abbas, held talks with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in Paris on this week to discuss the PA role.

Not the United Nations nor the 15 strong UNSC are assigned a oversight role over the mission, supervising the implementation of the resolution, a aspect largely overlooked by the draft text. No details is specified about the financing of this stabilisation mission, which, according to the Americans, should be mostly borne by Gulf states, with Saudi Arabia assuming primary responsibility.

Israeli Requests and Regional Developments

Israeli authorities is seeking formal assurances from the US that it be permitted to follow the model of the Lebanese situation and retain the right to return to the territory if it believes demilitarization is not taking place at a level or speed it requires.

The Israeli proposal was presented to Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and the American diplomat, Steve Witkoff. Kushner was in the Israeli capital on this week to discuss developments on the truce and the envoy was due to arrive later the that day.

Just the bodies of a small number of the initial 251 Israeli hostages remain not recovered.

Independently, Israel has been proposing that the Gaza Strip could yet be divided in two with reconstruction work beginning in the Israeli-controlled areas of the region. International officials insist that this is no part of the former US administration's proposal.