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Proposals for an international stabilisation force mandated by the United Nations to disarm Hamas in the Gaza Strip are facing increasing resistance after the United Arab Emirates stated it will not take part due to the absence of a well-defined legal structure.

Growing Global Concerns

Israel have previously ruled out Turkish participation, and the Jordanian King Abdullah has declared that Jordanian troops will not participate. The Azerbaijani government, previously mooted as a potential contributor, did not attend a planning session in Turkey and said it would not contribute unless a full truce was in place.

Emirati officials lacks clarity on a defined framework for the stabilisation mission and under such circumstances will not participate, but backs all diplomatic efforts towards resolution – and remain at the forefront of humanitarian aid.

Arab Skepticism and Legal Concerns

The Emirati decision, made by diplomatic representative Dr Anwar Gargash at a conference in Abu Dhabi, reflects regional reservations about the terms of a American-proposed document previously distributed to diplomats at the UN in New York. The draft places an onus on a US-directed security mission to be the primary means of imposing security in Gaza after Israeli forces have withdrawn from the territory.

Regional governments would prefer expanded responsibilities to be assigned to a separate local civilian police force. Global jurisprudence would also forbid foreign troops from entering contested Palestinian territories unless there was explicit Palestinian consent; without it, the mission could be viewed as imposed under UN law, and potentially reinforcing an illegal presence.

Palestinian Viewpoints and Calls for Definition

Jamal Nusseibeh of the ceasefire proposal commented: “It is essential that the force be deployed not to reinforce the illegal Israeli occupation, but to uphold international law and terminate it. The mission will succeed as long as it enters the entire disputed land, including the occupied territories, at the request of Palestine, and has a clear goal to end the occupation within the framework of a independent state of Palestine.”

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

Ongoing Negotiations and Possible Risks

In-depth talks on the mission authority, including its leadership structure, started officially on last week in New York, and appear to be protracted – potentially creating the emergence of a power gap in the strip that may empower Hamas.

The United States is suggesting that it lead the mission although it will not have many personnel involved on the terrain. It has previously effectively assumed command of the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza from a new logistical hub based in Israel.

Mission Mandate and Governance Function

The proposed American document defines the aim of the stabilisation force as “together with the recently prepared and vetted police force to help secure border areas, stabilise the security environment in the region by guaranteeing the process of disarming the territory including the elimination and prevention of reconstructing the militant and hostile facilities as well as the permanent removal of weapons from non-state armed groups”.

The force, reporting to a “peace council” chaired by Donald Trump, and not to the UN, would be required to use “any required actions” to fulfill its goals.

Arab states including Qatar are also concerned that this authority is overly broad, and if Hamas is to lay down arms, the group will solely do so to local counterparts, probably in the civilian police force, at a moment that, from the Hamas perspective, marks the conclusion of Israeli presence.

They also worry the draft mandate extends to granting the mission a governance function in the territory, a task that was to be reserved for a Palestinian technocratic committee working in conjunction with a restructured local government.

Aid Considerations and Funding Issues

This “transitional governance administration” in Gaza would remain until “the local government has adequately finished its reform program, the satisfaction of which shall be acceptable to the BoP”, the draft says. It also “emphasizes the significance” of full humanitarian aid in Gaza, including through the United Nations, the ICRC, and the humanitarian organizations.

However, it opens the door the exclusion of “any group determined to have misused such assistance”. The phrase permits the council excluding the UN relief agency, the body that the international court of justice has said is the legal distributor of assistance.

Global Political Initiatives

France and Saudi representatives are currently pressing for a reference to a sovereign Palestine to be included in the document. The Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is due in the US presidential residence on the specified date, and Manal Radwan has stated that a mention to a Palestinian state is a requirement.

The PA chair, Mahmoud Abbas, met the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in the French capital on this week to review the PA role.

Neither the UN nor the 15-member security council are assigned a supervisory role over the stabilisation force, monitoring the implementation of the proposal, a point mostly overlooked by the draft text. Nothing is specified about the funding of this security operation, which, as per the US officials, should be largely covered by regional nations, with Saudi Arabia taking the lead.

Israeli Requests and Local Developments

Israeli authorities is seeking written guarantees from the United States that it be permitted to follow the model of Lebanon and retain the right to return to Gaza if it believes demilitarization is not occurring at a level or pace it requires.

The request was presented to Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s relative, and the American diplomat, Steve Witkoff. The advisor was in Jerusalem on Monday to discuss progress on the truce and the envoy was due to appear later the that day.

Just the bodies of a small number of the initial hundreds of Israeli hostages remain unreturned.

Separately, Israeli officials has been proposing that the territory could still be divided in two with reconstruction work beginning in the Israel occupied parts of the strip. International officials maintain that this is no part of the former US administration's proposal.