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Plans for an international security mission mandated by the United Nations to demilitarize the militant group in the Gaza Strip are encountering increasing opposition after the United Arab Emirates announced it will not take part due to the lack of a clear legal framework.

Growing Global Reservations

Israel have already ruled out Turkey involvement, and Jordan's King Abdullah has stated that Jordanian troops will not participate. Azerbaijan, once mooted as a potential participant, was absent from a planning meeting in Turkey and said it would not take part unless a complete truce was established.

Emirati officials lacks clarity on a defined framework for the stability mission and in this situation will not participate, but will support all political initiatives towards peace – and stay at the vanguard of relief efforts.

Regional Doubts and Juridical Issues

The UAE's announcement, delivered by senior envoy Dr Anwar Gargash at a forum in Abu Dhabi, highlights regional doubts about the provisions of a US-drafted resolution previously circulated to diplomats at the UN in New York. The draft assigns responsibility on a US-directed stabilisation force to be the primary means of imposing security in the territory after Israeli forces have left the territory.

Arab states would prefer greater responsibilities to be given to a distinct local law enforcement agency. Global jurisprudence would also prohibit external forces from deploying into contested Palestine unless there was clear local approval; without it, the mission could be viewed as coercive under international statutes, and potentially reinforcing an unlawful presence.

Local Viewpoints and Calls for Definition

A Palestinian American co-author of the ceasefire proposal said: “It is essential that the force 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 operates in the whole disputed land, including the occupied territories, at the request of the Palestinian authorities, and has a clear goal to conclude the presence within the framework of a sovereign state of Palestine.”

There is no reference to the West Bank in the American proposal, or to a Palestinian state, or a peaceful resolution, a outcome that Israel opposes.

Ongoing Discussions and Potential Risks

Detailed talks on the stabilisation force mandate, including its leadership structure, started officially on last week in the UN headquarters, and look likely to be protracted – potentially creating the development of a vacuum in the strip that may empower Hamas.

The US is proposing that it command the mission although it will not have a large number of personnel involved on the terrain. It has previously effectively taken control of the delivery of relief supplies into the territory from a recently established civil military coordination centre based in the neighboring country.

Mission Objectives and Administrative Role

The proposed American document defines the aim of the stabilisation force as “together with the recently prepared and vetted police force to assist in protecting frontier zones, stabilise the security environment in the region by ensuring the procedure of demilitarising the territory including the destruction and prevention of reconstructing the militant and offensive infrastructure as well as the permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups”.

The force, answerable to a “board of peace” led by Donald Trump, and not to the United Nations, would be required to use “any required actions” to fulfill its goals.

Regional powers including Qatar are also worried that this authority is too expansive, and if Hamas is to lay down arms, the faction will only do so to local counterparts, likely in the local law enforcement, at a moment that, from the Hamas perspective, marks the end of Israeli presence.

They also worry the proposed authority extends to granting the mission a administrative function in the territory, a responsibility that was to be set aside for a Palestinian technocratic committee working in cooperation with a restructured local government.

Humanitarian Considerations and Funding Issues

This “interim authority” in Gaza would stay until “the local government has adequately finished its restructuring plan, the approval of which shall be acceptable to the board of peace”, the draft says. It also “underscores the importance” of unhindered humanitarian aid in Gaza, including through the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the humanitarian organizations.

However, it opens the door the exclusion of “any organisation found to have improperly used such assistance”. The phrase leaves open the council excluding Unrwa, the organization that the international court of justice has ruled is the lawful distributor of assistance.

International Diplomatic Efforts

France and Saudi Arabia are already pressing for a reference to a sovereign Palestine to be added in the resolution. The Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman, is due in the US presidential residence on 18 November, and Manal Radwan has said that a reference to a Palestinian state is a prerequisite.

The Palestinian Authority leader, Mahmoud Abbas, held talks with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in Paris on Monday to discuss the authority's function.

Not the UN nor the 15 strong security council are assigned a supervisory role over the stabilisation force, monitoring the implementation of the proposal, a aspect mostly overlooked by the draft text. Nothing is specified about the financing of this security operation, which, according to the US officials, should be largely covered by Gulf states, with the Kingdom assuming primary responsibility.

Israel's Requests and Local Situations

Israel is seeking formal assurances from the US that it be permitted to emulate the model of Lebanon and reserve the authority to re-enter Gaza if it considers demilitarization is not occurring at a scale or speed it demands.

The request was put to the former US advisor, 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 the envoy was due to arrive later the same day.

Just the bodies of four of the initial 251 captives are still unreturned.

Separately, Israeli officials has been proposing that the territory could yet be divided in two with rebuilding efforts beginning in the Israeli-controlled parts of the strip. International officials insist that this is no part of the former US administration's proposal.