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Plans for an international security mission authorized by the UN to demilitarize Hamas in Gaza are encountering growing resistance after the UAE stated it would not take part due to the lack of a clear legal structure.

Increasing Global Reservations

Israeli authorities have already ruled out Turkish participation, and Jordan's King Abdullah has declared that Jordanian troops will not participate. Azerbaijan, once mooted as a potential participant, did not attend a preparatory session in Istanbul and indicated it would not take part unless a complete ceasefire was established.

The UAE does not yet see a defined structure for the stability mission and under such circumstances will not participate, but backs all diplomatic efforts towards resolution – and remain at the forefront of humanitarian aid.

Arab Doubts and Legal Issues

The Emirati decision, delivered by diplomatic representative Dr Anwar Gargash at a conference in the UAE capital, reflects regional reservations about the terms of a American-proposed document previously circulated to delegates at the UN in New York. The proposal assigns responsibility on a US-directed stabilisation force to be the principal means of imposing order in the territory after Israeli forces have left the region.

Arab states would like greater responsibilities to be assigned to a separate local law enforcement agency. International law would also forbid external forces from deploying into occupied Palestinian territories unless there was clear Palestinian consent; otherwise, the mission could be seen as coercive under UN law, and arguably stabilising an illegal Israeli occupation.

Palestinian Perspectives and Appeals for Definition

A Palestinian American co-author of the Palestinian armistice plan commented: “It is essential that the mission be sent not to reinforce the unlawful Israeli occupation, but to uphold global standards and end it. The force will succeed as long as it enters the entire disputed land, including the occupied territories, at the invitation of Palestine, and has a clear objective to conclude the presence within the context 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 peaceful resolution, a prospect that Israel rejects.

Continuing Negotiations and Possible Dangers

In-depth talks on the mission mandate, including its leadership structure, started formally on Thursday in New York, and appear to be protracted – risking the emergence of a vacuum in the strip that may empower Hamas.

The US is suggesting that it command the mission although it will not have a large number of personnel involved on the ground. It has already in effect assumed command of the delivery of humanitarian aid into the territory from a recently established civil military coordination centre based in Israel.

Force Mandate and Administrative Role

The draft American document outlines the purpose of the stabilisation force as “along with the newly trained and vetted law enforcement to help secure frontier zones, secure the security environment in Gaza by ensuring the process of demilitarising the territory including the destruction and prevention of rebuilding the military terror and hostile facilities as well as the permanent removal of arms from militant factions”.

The mission, answerable to a “board of peace” led by the former US president, and not to the UN, would be required to use “all necessary measures” to achieve its objectives.

Regional powers including Qatar are also worried that this authority is too expansive, and if Hamas is to disarm, the group will only do so to local counterparts, likely in the civilian police force, at a time that, from the militant viewpoint, signifies the end of occupation.

They also worry the proposed authority extends to giving the mission a governance role in Gaza, a task that was to be reserved for a local expert panel working in cooperation with a restructured local government.

Aid Considerations and Financial Issues

This “interim authority” in the strip would remain until “the Palestinian Authority has adequately finished its reform program, the satisfaction of which shall be approved to the BoP”, the proposal says. It also “emphasizes the importance” of full humanitarian aid in the territory, including through the United Nations, the ICRC, and the Red Crescent.

However, it opens the door the exclusion of “any group determined to have misused such aid”. The phrase leaves open the board of peace barring Unrwa, the organization that the global judicial body has said is the legal provider of aid.

International Political Initiatives

France and Saudi Arabia are already pressing for a reference to a Palestinian state to be added in the resolution. 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 mention to a Palestinian state is a requirement.

The PA chair, Mahmoud Abbas, held talks with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in Paris on Monday to review the authority's function.

Not the UN nor the 15 strong UNSC are assigned a oversight function over the mission, supervising the implementation of the proposal, a point mostly ignored by the draft text. Nothing is specified about the financing of this stabilisation mission, which, according to the US officials, should be largely borne by regional nations, with the Kingdom assuming primary responsibility.

Israel's Demands and Regional Developments

Israel is requesting formal assurances from the United States that it be allowed to emulate the pattern of the Lebanese situation and retain the authority to re-enter Gaza if it believes disarmament is not taking place at a scale or pace it requires.

The Israeli proposal was put to the former US advisor, Donald Trump’s relative, and the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff. The advisor was in the Israeli capital on this week to review developments on the truce and Witkoff was scheduled to appear later the that day.

Just the bodies of a small number of the original 251 captives remain not recovered.

Independently, Israel has been proposing that the territory could yet be divided in two with reconstruction work starting in the Israel occupied parts of the strip. International officials insist that this is no part of the former US administration's proposal.