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Plans for an international security mission mandated by the UN to disarm Hamas in Gaza are encountering growing opposition after the United Arab Emirates announced it would not join due to the absence of a clear legal structure.

Growing Global Reservations

Israeli authorities have previously excluded Turkish involvement, and Jordan's King Abdullah has declared that his country's forces will not join. Azerbaijan, once mooted as a potential contributor, was absent from a planning meeting in Istanbul and said it would not contribute unless a full truce was in place.

Emirati officials does not yet see a clear framework for the stabilisation force and in this situation declines involvement, but will support all political initiatives towards peace – and remain at the vanguard of relief efforts.

Regional Doubts and Juridical Issues

The UAE's decision, delivered by diplomatic representative Dr Anwar Gargash at a conference in Abu Dhabi, highlights Arab reservations about the provisions of a American-proposed document previously circulated to diplomats at the UN in New York. The draft places an onus on a US-directed security mission to be the principal means of ensuring order in the territory after Israel have withdrawn from the territory.

Regional governments would like greater responsibilities to be assigned to a separate Palestinian civilian police force. International law would also prohibit external forces from deploying into occupied Palestine unless there was explicit Palestinian consent; otherwise, the mission could be viewed as coercive under international statutes, and arguably stabilising an unlawful presence.

Palestinian Viewpoints and Calls for Clarity

A Palestinian American co-author of the Palestinian armistice plan said: “It is critical that the mission be deployed not to reinforce the illegal Israeli occupation, but to uphold global standards and end it. The force will succeed as long as it enters the whole occupied territory, including the West Bank, at the invitation of Palestine, and has a clear goal to end the presence within the context of a independent state of Palestine.”

The draft contains no mention to the occupied territories in the US draft resolution, or to a Palestinian state, or a peaceful resolution, a outcome that Israel rejects.

Continuing Negotiations and Potential Dangers

Detailed talks on the stabilisation force mandate, including its command and control, started officially on last week in New York, and appear to be lengthy – potentially creating the emergence of a power gap in Gaza that may empower militant factions.

The United States is proposing that it lead the force although it will not have many troops involved on the ground. It has previously in effect assumed command of the distribution of humanitarian aid into the territory from a new logistical hub based in Israel.

Mission Objectives and Governance Function

The draft American document defines the purpose of the security mission as “along with the recently prepared and screened police force to help secure border areas, stabilise the safety situation in the region by guaranteeing the process of disarming the territory including the elimination and prevention of reconstructing the military terror and hostile facilities as well as the permanent decommissioning of arms from militant factions”.

The force, answerable to a “board of peace” chaired by Donald Trump, and not to the United Nations, would be mandated to use “all necessary measures” to fulfill its goals.

Regional powers including Qatari officials are also concerned that this mandate is too expansive, and if Hamas is to disarm, the faction will solely do so to fellow Palestinians, likely in the civilian police force, at a moment that, from the militant viewpoint, signifies the conclusion of occupation.

They also worry the proposed authority extends to granting the mission a governance function in Gaza, a task that was to be set aside for a local technocratic committee working in conjunction with a restructured local government.

Aid Considerations and Funding Issues

This “transitional governance administration” in Gaza would remain until “the local government has satisfactorily finished its restructuring plan, the satisfaction of which shall be acceptable to the BoP”, the proposal states. It also “underscores the significance” of unhindered relief in the territory, including through the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the humanitarian organizations.

Nonetheless, it allows for the removal of “any group found to have misused such assistance”. The wording leaves open the board of peace excluding the UN relief agency, the body that the international court of justice has said is the legal distributor of assistance.

International Diplomatic Efforts

France and Saudi Arabia are currently advocating for a reference to a sovereign Palestine to be included in the document. The Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman, is due in the US presidential residence on the specified date, and Manal Radwan has stated that a mention to a independent Palestine is a requirement.

The PA chair, Mahmoud Abbas, met the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in Paris on this week to discuss the PA role.

Neither the UN nor the 15 strong UNSC are given a oversight function over the mission, supervising the execution of the proposal, a point largely overlooked 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 Gulf states, with the Kingdom taking the lead.

Israeli Demands and Local Developments

Israeli authorities is requesting written guarantees from the United States that it be permitted to follow the model of Lebanon and retain the right to re-enter the territory if it considers demilitarization is not occurring at a level or pace it demands.

The request was put to the former US advisor, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff. The advisor was in the Israeli capital on this week to review developments on the ceasefire and the envoy was due to arrive subsequently the same day.

Just the remains of a small number of the original hundreds of captives remain not recovered.

Separately, Israel has been suggesting that the territory could yet be divided in two with rebuilding efforts beginning in the Israel occupied areas of the strip. Western diplomats insist that this is no part of the Trump plan.