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Plans for an multinational stabilisation force mandated by the United Nations to disarm Hamas in the Gaza Strip are encountering increasing opposition after the United Arab Emirates announced it will not take part due to the absence of a clear legal framework.

Increasing International Reservations

Israeli authorities have previously excluded Turkish involvement, and the Jordanian King Abdullah has declared that Jordanian troops will not join. 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 complete truce was in place.

Emirati officials lacks clarity on a clear framework for the stability mission and in this situation declines involvement, but will support all political initiatives towards resolution – and stay at the vanguard of relief efforts.

Arab Skepticism and Juridical Issues

The Emirati announcement, delivered by diplomatic representative Dr Anwar Gargash at a conference in Abu Dhabi, reflects regional doubts about the terms of a US-drafted resolution already circulated to delegates at the UN in NYC. The draft assigns responsibility on a American-led stabilisation force to be the primary means of imposing security in the territory after Israeli forces have withdrawn from the region.

Regional governments would prefer greater responsibilities to be assigned to a distinct Palestinian law enforcement agency. International law would also prohibit external forces from deploying into contested Palestinian territories unless there was explicit local approval; otherwise, the mission could be seen as coercive under UN law, and arguably reinforcing an unlawful Israeli occupation.

Local Perspectives and Appeals for Clarity

A Palestinian American co-author of the Palestinian armistice plan said: “It is essential that the force be deployed not to reinforce the unlawful presence, but to enforce international law and end it. The force will succeed as long as it enters the whole disputed land, including the occupied territories, at the request of Palestine, and has a clear goal to conclude the presence within the context of a independent Palestinian state.”

There is no reference to the West Bank in the US draft resolution, or to a sovereign Palestine, or a two-state solution, a prospect that Israel opposes.

Ongoing Negotiations and Possible Dangers

Detailed negotiations on the mission authority, including its leadership structure, started formally on last week in the UN headquarters, and appear to be protracted – risking the development of a vacuum in Gaza that may strengthen militant factions.

The US is suggesting that it lead the force although it will not have a large number of troops deployed on the ground. It has previously effectively taken control of the delivery of relief supplies into Gaza from a new civil military coordination centre based in Israel.

Mission Mandate and Administrative Role

The proposed US resolution outlines the purpose of the stabilisation force as “along with the recently prepared and screened police force to help secure frontier zones, stabilise the security environment in the region by guaranteeing the process of demilitarising the territory including the elimination and prevention of rebuilding the militant and hostile facilities as well as the permanent decommissioning of weapons from militant factions”.

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

Arab states including Qatari officials are also concerned that this authority is overly broad, and if Hamas is to disarm, the group will solely do so to fellow Palestinians, probably in the civilian police force, at a time that, from the Hamas perspective, signifies the end of occupation.

They also worry the draft mandate spills into granting the mission a governance role in Gaza, a task that was to be set aside for a local expert panel working in cooperation with a restructured local government.

Aid Considerations and Financial Questions

This “transitional governance administration” in the strip would stay until “the Palestinian Authority has adequately completed its restructuring plan, the satisfaction of which shall be approved to the board of peace”, the proposal states. It also “underscores the significance” of full relief in Gaza, including through the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the humanitarian organizations.

Nonetheless, it opens the door the exclusion of “any organisation determined to have misused such assistance”. The phrase permits the board of peace excluding Unrwa, the organization that the global judicial body has said is the lawful provider of assistance.

International Political Initiatives

French officials and Saudi representatives are currently advocating 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 mention to a independent Palestine is a prerequisite.

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

Not the UN nor the 15-member UNSC are given a supervisory role over the mission, monitoring the execution of the proposal, a aspect mostly overlooked by the proposed document. Nothing is specified about the financing of this security operation, which, as per the US officials, should be mostly borne by Gulf states, with the Kingdom taking the lead.

Israel's Demands and Regional Developments

Israel is requesting formal assurances from the United States that it be allowed to follow the pattern of Lebanon and reserve the authority to re-enter the territory if it believes disarmament is not taking place at a scale or pace it requires.

The Israeli proposal was put to Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff. Kushner was in Jerusalem on Monday to discuss developments on the truce and Witkoff was due to appear later the same day.

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

Independently, Israeli officials has been suggesting that the territory could yet be divided in two parts with reconstruction work beginning in the Israel occupied areas of the strip. Western diplomats maintain that this is no part of the former US administration's proposal.