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Plans for an multinational stabilisation force mandated by the UN to disarm Hamas in Gaza are facing growing resistance after the UAE stated it will not join due to the lack of a clear legal structure.

Increasing Global Concerns

Israel have previously excluded Turkish involvement, and the Jordanian King Abdullah has declared that Jordanian troops will not participate. Azerbaijan, previously considered as a potential participant, did not attend a preparatory session in Istanbul and indicated it would not contribute unless a full truce was established.

The UAE lacks clarity on a clear framework for the stability mission and under such circumstances will not participate, but will support all political efforts towards peace – and stay at the vanguard of humanitarian aid.

Arab Skepticism and Juridical Concerns

The UAE's announcement, made by diplomatic representative Dr Anwar Gargash at a forum in Abu Dhabi, highlights regional reservations about the provisions of a US-drafted document already circulated to diplomats at the UN in New York. The draft places an onus on a US-directed stabilisation force to be the principal means of imposing security in Gaza after Israeli forces have withdrawn from the territory.

Regional governments would prefer greater duties to be assigned to a distinct local civilian police force. Global jurisprudence would also prohibit foreign troops from entering occupied Palestinian territories unless there was clear local approval; without it, the force could be viewed as coercive under international statutes, and potentially stabilising an unlawful presence.

Palestinian Viewpoints and Calls for Definition

Jamal Nusseibeh of the ceasefire proposal said: “It is critical that the mission be sent not to stabilise the unlawful Israeli occupation, but to enforce international law and terminate it. The force will work as long as it operates in the whole occupied territory, including the occupied territories, at the invitation of Palestine, and has a clear objective to end the presence within the context of a independent state of Palestine.”

The draft contains no reference to the occupied territories in the US draft resolution, or to a Palestinian state, or a two-state solution, a prospect that Israeli leadership opposes.

Ongoing Negotiations and Potential Dangers

In-depth talks on the stabilisation force mandate, including its leadership structure, began formally on last week in New York, and look likely to be protracted – potentially creating the emergence of a vacuum in the strip that may empower militant factions.

The United States is suggesting that it lead the force although it will not have a large number of personnel deployed on the ground. It has already in effect assumed command 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 Role

The proposed US resolution outlines the aim of the stabilisation force as “along with the recently prepared and screened police force to assist in protecting border areas, stabilise the security environment in Gaza by ensuring the process of disarming the territory including the elimination and blocking of rebuilding the military terror and hostile facilities as well as the lasting removal of arms from non-state armed groups”.

The force, reporting to a “board of peace” chaired by the former US president, and not to the United Nations, would be mandated to use “all necessary measures” to achieve its goals.

Arab states including Qatar are also worried that this mandate is too expansive, and if Hamas is to lay down arms, the group will solely do so to local counterparts, probably in the local law enforcement, at a time that, from the militant viewpoint, signifies the end of occupation.

They also worry the proposed authority spills into giving the stabilisation force a governance function in Gaza, a responsibility that was to be reserved for a Palestinian technocratic committee working in conjunction with a restructured local government.

Humanitarian Aspects and Financial Issues

This “transitional governance administration” in Gaza would stay until “the local government has adequately completed its reform program, the approval of which shall be acceptable to the BoP”, the draft says. It also “underscores the significance” of unhindered relief in Gaza, including through the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the Red Crescent.

However, it opens the door the exclusion of “any organisation found to have misused such aid”. The wording permits the council excluding Unrwa, the body that the global judicial body has ruled is the lawful distributor of assistance.

International Diplomatic Efforts

France and Saudi Arabia are currently advocating for a mention to a Palestinian state to be included in the document. The Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman, is due in the US presidential residence on 18 November, and Manal Radwan has stated that a mention to a independent Palestine is a requirement.

The PA chair, Mahmoud Abbas, held talks with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in the French capital on this week to discuss the authority's function.

Neither the UN nor the 15 strong UNSC are given a oversight role over the mission, supervising the implementation of the proposal, a aspect mostly ignored by the draft text. Nothing is specified about the financing of this security operation, which, according to the US officials, should be mostly borne by regional nations, with the Kingdom taking the lead.

Israeli Demands and Regional Situations

Israeli authorities is requesting written guarantees from the US that it be allowed to emulate the pattern of Lebanon and reserve the authority to re-enter Gaza if it considers disarmament is not occurring at a scale or speed it demands.

The request was put to the former US advisor, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and the American diplomat, Steve Witkoff. Kushner was in Jerusalem on Monday to discuss developments on the truce and the envoy was scheduled to arrive later the that day.

Just the bodies of a small number of the initial hundreds of Israeli hostages are still not recovered.

Separately, Israel has been proposing that the Gaza Strip could yet be split in two parts with reconstruction work beginning in the Israeli-controlled parts of the region. Western diplomats insist that this is no part of the Trump plan.