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Plans for an international stabilisation force authorized by the United Nations to demilitarize Hamas in the Gaza Strip are facing growing resistance after the UAE stated it would not take part due to the absence of a clear legal framework.

Growing Global Reservations

Israel have previously ruled out Turkish involvement, and Jordan's King Abdullah has declared that his country's forces will not join. The Azerbaijani government, once considered as a possible contributor, did not attend a planning meeting in Turkey and indicated it would not contribute unless a full truce was established.

Emirati officials lacks clarity on a defined framework for the stability force and in this situation will not participate, but will support all diplomatic initiatives towards resolution – and stay at the forefront of humanitarian aid.

Regional Skepticism and Juridical Issues

The Emirati announcement, made by diplomatic representative Dr Anwar Gargash at a forum in Abu Dhabi, highlights regional doubts about the provisions of a American-proposed resolution already circulated to delegates at the UN in New York. The draft places an onus on a US-directed stabilisation force to be the principal means of ensuring order in Gaza after Israeli forces have withdrawn from the territory.

Arab states would like greater responsibilities to be assigned to a distinct local civilian police force. Global jurisprudence would also forbid foreign troops from deploying into occupied Palestinian territories unless there was explicit Palestinian consent; without it, the mission could be viewed as coercive under international statutes, and arguably stabilising an unlawful Israeli occupation.

Palestinian Viewpoints and Calls for Definition

Jamal Nusseibeh of the ceasefire proposal commented: “It is critical that the force be deployed not to reinforce the illegal presence, but to enforce global standards and end it. The mission will succeed as long as it enters the entire occupied territory, including the occupied territories, at the request of the Palestinian authorities, and has a defined objective to conclude the presence within the framework of a independent Palestinian state.”

There is no reference to the West Bank in the American proposal, or to a sovereign Palestine, or a peaceful resolution, a prospect that Israel opposes.

Ongoing Negotiations and Potential Dangers

In-depth talks on the mission authority, including its command and control, started officially on last week in the UN headquarters, and look likely to be protracted – potentially creating the development of a vacuum in Gaza that may strengthen militant factions.

The United States is proposing that it lead the mission although it will not have a large number of personnel deployed on the ground. It has previously in effect taken control of the distribution of humanitarian aid into Gaza from a recently established civil military coordination centre based in Israel.

Mission Mandate and Administrative Role

The proposed US resolution defines the purpose of the stabilisation force as “together with the newly trained and screened police force to help secure frontier zones, secure the security environment in the region by guaranteeing the procedure of demilitarising the territory including the elimination and blocking of rebuilding the military terror and offensive infrastructure as well as the lasting decommissioning of arms from non-state armed groups”.

The mission, answerable to a “board of peace” chaired by the former US president, and not to the UN, would be required to use “any required actions” to achieve its goals.

Regional powers including Qatar are also worried that this authority is overly broad, and if the group is to disarm, the faction will only do so to local counterparts, likely in the civilian police force, at a time that, from the militant perspective, signifies the end of Israeli presence.

They also fear the draft mandate spills into granting the stabilisation force a administrative function in the territory, a responsibility that was to be set aside for a local technocratic committee working in cooperation with a reformed Palestinian Authority.

Humanitarian Aspects and Financial Issues

This “transitional governance administration” in the strip would remain until “the local government has adequately completed its reform program, the satisfaction of which shall be acceptable to the BoP”, the proposal says. It also “emphasizes the significance” of unhindered relief in Gaza, including through the United Nations, the ICRC, and the Red Crescent.

Nonetheless, it allows for the exclusion of “any group determined to have misused such assistance”. The wording leaves open the board of peace excluding the UN relief agency, the organization that the international court of justice has ruled is the legal provider of assistance.

International Diplomatic Efforts

France and Saudi Arabia are already pressing for a reference to a Palestinian state to be included in the resolution. The Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman, is scheduled in the White House on 18 November, and Manal Radwan has stated that a reference to a independent Palestine is a requirement.

The PA chair, Mahmoud Abbas, held talks with the French leader, Emmanuel Macron, in Paris on Monday to review the PA role.

Neither the United Nations nor the 15 strong security council are assigned a supervisory function over the mission, monitoring the implementation of the resolution, a aspect largely ignored by the proposed document. No details is specified about the funding of this security operation, which, as per the US officials, should be largely borne by Gulf states, with Saudi Arabia taking the lead.

Israeli Demands and Local Situations

Israeli authorities is requesting formal assurances from the US that it be permitted to follow the model of the Lebanese situation and reserve the authority to return to Gaza if it considers demilitarization is not taking place at a scale or speed it requires.

The Israeli proposal was put to Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s relative, and the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff. The advisor was in the Israeli capital on Monday to review developments on the truce and the envoy was due to arrive subsequently the same day.

Just the bodies of four of the initial 251 Israeli hostages remain unreturned.

Separately, Israeli officials has been suggesting that the Gaza Strip could still be split in two with rebuilding efforts beginning in the Israeli-controlled parts of the region. Western diplomats maintain that this is no part of the former US administration's proposal.