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Plans for an multinational security mission authorized by the UN to demilitarize Hamas in the Gaza Strip are encountering increasing resistance after the UAE announced it would not join due to the lack of a clear legal framework.

Growing Global Concerns

Israel have previously excluded Turkey involvement, and the Jordanian King Abdullah has stated that Jordanian forces will not participate. The Azerbaijani government, once considered as a potential contributor, did not attend a planning session in Turkey and indicated it would not take part unless a complete ceasefire was in place.

Emirati officials does not yet see a clear structure for the stabilisation mission and in this situation declines involvement, but backs all diplomatic efforts towards resolution – and stay at the vanguard of relief efforts.

Arab Skepticism and Legal Issues

The Emirati announcement, delivered by senior envoy Dr Anwar Gargash at a forum in Abu Dhabi, reflects regional doubts about the provisions of a US-drafted resolution previously distributed to delegates at the UN in NYC. The proposal assigns responsibility on a American-led stabilisation force to be the primary means of ensuring security in Gaza after Israel have withdrawn from the region.

Arab states would prefer greater responsibilities to be given to a separate local civilian police force. Global jurisprudence would also prohibit foreign troops from entering occupied Palestinian territories unless there was explicit Palestinian consent; otherwise, the force could be viewed as coercive under UN law, and potentially reinforcing an unlawful Israeli occupation.

Local Viewpoints and Calls for Clarity

A Palestinian American co-author of the Palestinian armistice plan commented: “It is critical that the force be sent not to stabilise the unlawful Israeli occupation, but to enforce global standards and terminate it. The force will succeed as long as it enters the entire occupied territory, including the occupied territories, at the invitation of the Palestinian authorities, and has a defined goal to end the occupation within the context of a independent Palestinian state.”

The draft contains no mention to the occupied territories in the US draft resolution, or to a sovereign Palestine, or a peaceful resolution, a outcome that Israel opposes.

Ongoing Negotiations and Possible Dangers

In-depth talks on the stabilisation force mandate, including its leadership structure, began formally on Thursday in the UN headquarters, and look likely to be protracted – risking the emergence of a power gap in Gaza that may strengthen Hamas.

The US is suggesting that it lead the mission although it will not have many personnel deployed on the terrain. It has previously in effect assumed command of the distribution of humanitarian aid into Gaza from a recently established civil military coordination centre based in Israel.

Force Objectives and Administrative Role

The draft American document defines the purpose of the security mission as “along with the recently prepared and vetted law enforcement to help secure border areas, stabilise the safety situation in the region by ensuring the process of demilitarising the Gaza Strip including the destruction and blocking of rebuilding the military terror and offensive infrastructure as well as the permanent decommissioning of weapons from militant factions”.

The mission, answerable to a “peace council” led by Donald Trump, and not to the United Nations, would be required to use “any required actions” to fulfill its objectives.

Regional powers including Qatari officials are also concerned that this mandate is overly broad, and if Hamas is to lay down arms, the faction will solely do so to fellow Palestinians, probably in the local law enforcement, at a moment that, from the militant viewpoint, marks the end of occupation.

They also worry the proposed authority extends to granting the stabilisation force a administrative function in Gaza, a task that was to be reserved for a local expert panel working in conjunction with a restructured Palestinian Authority.

Aid Aspects and Funding Issues

This “interim authority” in Gaza would stay until “the local government has adequately completed its reform program, the satisfaction of which shall be acceptable to the BoP”, the proposal states. It also “emphasizes the importance” of full relief in the territory, including through the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the humanitarian organizations.

However, it allows for the exclusion of “any group found to have improperly used such aid”. The phrase leaves open the board of peace excluding Unrwa, the organization that the international court of justice has said is the legal distributor of assistance.

International Diplomatic Initiatives

France and Saudi representatives are currently pressing for a reference to a Palestinian state to be added in the resolution. The Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is due in the White House on 18 November, and Manal Radwan has stated that a mention to a Palestinian state is a requirement.

The PA chair, Mahmoud Abbas, met the French leader, Emmanuel Macron, in Paris on Monday to discuss the authority's function.

Neither the United Nations nor the 15 strong UNSC are assigned a oversight function over the stabilisation force, monitoring the implementation of the resolution, a aspect mostly ignored by the draft text. Nothing is outlined about the funding of this stabilisation mission, which, as per the US officials, should be mostly borne by regional nations, with the Kingdom taking the lead.

Israel's Demands and Regional Developments

Israeli authorities is seeking formal assurances from the US that it be permitted to emulate the pattern of the Lebanese situation and reserve the authority to return to the territory if it considers disarmament is not taking place at a scale or speed it requires.

The request was presented to Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff. Kushner was in Jerusalem on Monday to review developments on the ceasefire and Witkoff was scheduled to appear later the that day.

Only the bodies of a small number of the original hundreds of Israeli hostages remain unreturned.

Separately, Israeli officials has been proposing that the Gaza Strip could still be divided in two parts with rebuilding efforts beginning in the Israel occupied areas of the strip. Western diplomats maintain that this is not part of the former US administration's proposal.