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Plans for an multinational security mission mandated by the UN to disarm Hamas in Gaza are encountering increasing resistance after the UAE announced it will not take part due to the lack of a well-defined legal structure.

Growing International Reservations

Israel have already ruled out Turkey involvement, and the Jordanian King Abdullah has declared that Jordanian troops will not join. Azerbaijan, once mooted as a potential contributor, did not attend a planning session in Istanbul and said it would not take part unless a complete ceasefire was in place.

Emirati officials does not yet see a clear framework for the stability mission and in this situation declines involvement, but will support all diplomatic efforts towards peace – and stay at the vanguard of relief efforts.

Regional Doubts and Legal Concerns

The UAE's decision, delivered by senior envoy Dr Anwar Gargash at a forum in Abu Dhabi, highlights Arab doubts about the provisions of a American-proposed resolution previously circulated to diplomats at the UN in New York. The draft places an onus on a American-led security mission to be the principal means of imposing security in the territory after Israeli forces have withdrawn from the territory.

Regional governments would prefer greater duties to be assigned to a distinct Palestinian civilian police force. Global jurisprudence would also prohibit external forces from entering occupied Palestine unless there was explicit Palestinian consent; without it, the mission could be viewed as coercive under international statutes, and arguably reinforcing an illegal presence.

Palestinian Perspectives and Appeals for Clarity

A Palestinian American co-author of the Palestinian armistice plan commented: “It is essential that the force be sent not to stabilise the illegal presence, but to enforce global standards and end it. The force will succeed as long as it operates in the entire occupied territory, including the West Bank, at the request of the Palestinian authorities, and has a clear goal to conclude the presence within the framework of a sovereign Palestinian state.”

The draft contains no mention to the West Bank in the US draft resolution, or to a Palestinian state, or a two-state solution, a prospect that Israeli leadership opposes.

Continuing Negotiations and Possible Risks

In-depth talks on the stabilisation force authority, including its command and control, started formally on Thursday in New York, and appear to be lengthy – risking the development of a vacuum in the strip that may strengthen militant factions.

The US is proposing that it command the mission although it will not have a large number of personnel deployed on the ground. It has previously in effect taken control of the delivery of humanitarian aid into the territory from a recently established civil military coordination centre based in the neighboring country.

Force Mandate and Governance Function

The proposed American document outlines the aim of the security mission as “together with the newly trained and screened police force to assist in protecting border areas, stabilise the safety situation in the region by ensuring the process of disarming the Gaza Strip including the destruction and blocking of reconstructing the military terror and offensive infrastructure as well as the lasting removal of arms from non-state armed groups”.

The mission, answerable to a “board of peace” led by Donald Trump, and not to the United Nations, would be mandated to use “all necessary measures” to achieve its goals.

Regional powers including Qatar are also concerned that this mandate is too expansive, and if the group is to disarm, the faction will solely do so to fellow Palestinians, probably in the civilian police force, at a time that, from the militant perspective, signifies the conclusion of Israeli presence.

They also fear the draft mandate spills into giving the stabilisation force a administrative role in the territory, a responsibility that was to be reserved for a Palestinian expert panel working in cooperation with a reformed local government.

Aid Aspects and Financial Issues

This “interim authority” in the strip would remain until “the Palestinian Authority has adequately completed its restructuring plan, the satisfaction of which shall be acceptable to the BoP”, the draft says. It also “underscores the importance” of full humanitarian aid in Gaza, including through the United Nations, the ICRC, and the Red Crescent.

However, it allows for the removal of “any organisation found to have misused such assistance”. The wording leaves open the board of peace excluding Unrwa, the organization that the international court of justice has said is the legal distributor of aid.

Global Political Efforts

French officials and Saudi representatives are currently pressing for a mention to a sovereign Palestine to be included in the document. The Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is scheduled in the US presidential residence on 18 November, and a Saudi foreign ministry official has stated that a reference to a independent Palestine is a requirement.

The PA chair, Mahmoud Abbas, met the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in the French capital on Monday to review the authority's function.

Neither the United Nations nor the 15-member security council are given a supervisory role over the stabilisation force, monitoring the execution of the resolution, a point mostly ignored by the draft text. Nothing is specified about the financing of this stabilisation mission, which, as per the Americans, should be largely covered by regional nations, with Saudi Arabia assuming primary responsibility.

Israel's Requests and Local Situations

Israel is requesting written guarantees from the United States that it be allowed to emulate the model of Lebanon and retain the right to return to Gaza if it believes demilitarization is not occurring at a scale or speed it requires.

The Israeli proposal was presented to the former US advisor, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and the American diplomat, Steve Witkoff. The advisor was in the Israeli capital on this week to review progress on the ceasefire and the envoy was due to arrive subsequently the same day.

Only the bodies of a small number of the original hundreds of Israeli hostages remain not recovered.

Independently, Israeli officials has been proposing that the Gaza Strip could still be split in two with reconstruction work starting in the Israeli-controlled parts of the region. Western diplomats maintain that this is not part of the former US administration's proposal.