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Plans for an multinational stabilisation force authorized by the United Nations to disarm the militant group in Gaza are facing increasing resistance after the United Arab Emirates announced it would not join due to the lack of a well-defined legal framework.

Increasing International Concerns

Israel have previously excluded Turkish participation, and Jordan's King Abdullah has declared that Jordanian forces will not join. The Azerbaijani government, once considered as a possible participant, was absent from a planning session in Istanbul and indicated it would not take part unless a full truce was in place.

The UAE lacks clarity on a clear structure for the stabilisation force and in this situation will not participate, but backs all political efforts towards resolution – and remain at the forefront of humanitarian aid.

Arab Doubts and Juridical Concerns

The Emirati decision, made by senior envoy Dr Anwar Gargash at a forum in Abu Dhabi, highlights Arab reservations about the terms of a US-drafted document previously circulated to diplomats at the UN in NYC. The draft assigns responsibility on a US-directed stabilisation force to be the primary means of ensuring security in the territory after Israeli forces have left the territory.

Regional governments would like greater responsibilities to be given to a separate local law enforcement agency. Global jurisprudence would also prohibit foreign troops from entering occupied Palestinian territories unless there was clear local approval; otherwise, the force could be viewed as imposed under UN law, and potentially reinforcing an unlawful Israeli occupation.

Palestinian Perspectives and Appeals for Clarity

A Palestinian American co-author of the ceasefire proposal commented: “It is critical that the force be deployed not to stabilise the illegal presence, but to enforce global standards and end it. The force will work as long as it operates in the whole disputed land, including the West Bank, at the request of Palestine, and has a clear objective to end the presence within the framework of a sovereign state of Palestine.”

The draft contains 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.

Continuing Negotiations and Potential Risks

Detailed negotiations on the mission mandate, including its command and control, began officially on Thursday in the UN headquarters, and appear to be protracted – risking the emergence of a vacuum in Gaza that may strengthen militant factions.

The US is suggesting that it command 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 the territory from a recently established civil military coordination centre based in Israel.

Mission Objectives and Governance Role

The draft American document outlines the purpose of the stabilisation force as “together with the recently prepared and screened police force to assist in protecting border areas, secure the safety situation in Gaza by ensuring the process of demilitarising the territory including the destruction and prevention of reconstructing the military terror and offensive infrastructure as well as the lasting decommissioning of arms from non-state armed groups”.

The force, answerable to a “peace council” led by Donald Trump, and not to the UN, would be mandated to use “all necessary measures” to achieve its objectives.

Arab states including Qatar are also worried that this mandate is overly broad, and if the group is to lay down arms, the faction will only do so to local counterparts, likely in the civilian police force, at a moment that, from the Hamas perspective, marks the end of Israeli presence.

They also worry the proposed authority spills into granting the mission a administrative role in the territory, a task that was to be set aside for a local technocratic committee working in conjunction with a restructured local government.

Aid Aspects and Funding Issues

This “transitional governance administration” in Gaza would stay until “the Palestinian Authority has adequately completed its restructuring plan, the satisfaction of which shall be approved to the BoP”, the proposal states. It also “underscores the importance” of unhindered humanitarian aid in the territory, including through the United Nations, the ICRC, and the Red Crescent.

Nonetheless, it opens the door the exclusion of “any organisation found to have improperly used such aid”. The phrase permits the board of peace excluding the UN relief agency, the body that the global judicial body has said is the legal distributor of aid.

International Diplomatic Initiatives

France and Saudi Arabia are currently pressing for a reference to a Palestinian state to be added in the document. The Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is due in the White House on the specified date, and Manal Radwan has said that a reference 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 PA role.

Not the UN nor the 15 strong UNSC are assigned a supervisory role over the stabilisation force, monitoring the implementation of the proposal, a aspect largely ignored by the proposed document. Nothing is specified about the funding of this security operation, which, according to the US officials, should be mostly covered by Gulf states, with Saudi Arabia assuming primary responsibility.

Israeli Requests and Regional Developments

Israeli authorities is requesting written guarantees from the United States that it be allowed to follow the pattern of the Lebanese situation and reserve the right to re-enter the territory if it believes disarmament is not taking place at a level or speed it demands.

The Israeli proposal was put to the former US advisor, the ex-president's relative, and the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff. Kushner was in the Israeli capital on this week to review developments on the truce and Witkoff was scheduled to arrive subsequently the that day.

Only the bodies of four of the original 251 captives are still unreturned.

Independently, Israeli officials has been proposing that the Gaza Strip could yet be divided in two parts with reconstruction work starting in the Israeli-controlled parts of the strip. Western diplomats insist that this is no part of the former US administration's proposal.