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Plans for an international stabilisation force authorized by the UN to disarm Hamas in the Gaza Strip are facing growing opposition after the UAE announced it will not join due to the lack of a well-defined legal framework.

Increasing International Concerns

Israel have already ruled out Turkish participation, and the Jordanian King Abdullah has declared that Jordanian forces will not participate. Azerbaijan, once considered as a potential contributor, was absent from a preparatory meeting in Turkey and said it would not contribute unless a complete ceasefire was established.

The UAE does not yet see a clear framework for the stabilisation mission and under such circumstances declines involvement, but will support all diplomatic initiatives towards resolution – and stay at the vanguard of humanitarian aid.

Regional Skepticism and Legal Issues

The Emirati decision, made by diplomatic representative Dr Anwar Gargash at a conference in the UAE capital, highlights Arab reservations about the provisions of a US-drafted document previously circulated to diplomats at the UN in NYC. The draft places an onus on a American-led security mission to be the principal means of ensuring security in the territory after Israeli forces have withdrawn from the territory.

Arab states would prefer greater duties to be assigned to a separate local civilian police force. International law would also prohibit external forces from entering contested Palestinian territories unless there was clear local approval; otherwise, the mission could be viewed as coercive under international statutes, and arguably stabilising an illegal Israeli occupation.

Palestinian Viewpoints and Appeals for Definition

Jamal Nusseibeh of the ceasefire proposal commented: “It is critical that the mission be deployed not to reinforce the illegal presence, but to enforce international law and terminate it. The force will succeed as long as it enters the entire occupied territory, including the occupied territories, at the invitation of Palestine, and has a defined objective to end the occupation within the context of a independent Palestinian state.”

There is no mention to the occupied territories in the American proposal, or to a sovereign Palestine, or a two-state solution, a outcome that Israeli leadership opposes.

Continuing Discussions and Possible Risks

In-depth negotiations on the stabilisation force authority, including its leadership structure, began officially on Thursday in the UN headquarters, and look likely to be lengthy – risking the development of a power gap in Gaza that may strengthen militant factions.

The US is suggesting that it command the mission although it will not have many personnel deployed on the ground. It has already effectively assumed command of the distribution of relief supplies into the territory from a recently established logistical hub based in the neighboring country.

Force Objectives and Administrative Function

The draft US resolution defines the purpose of the stabilisation force as “together with the recently prepared and vetted law enforcement to assist in protecting border areas, secure the security environment in the region by ensuring the process of disarming the Gaza Strip including the elimination and prevention of rebuilding the militant and offensive infrastructure as well as the permanent removal of weapons from militant factions”.

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

Arab states including Qatari officials are also worried that this mandate is overly broad, and if Hamas is to lay down arms, the group will only do so to local counterparts, likely in the local law enforcement, at a moment that, from the militant perspective, marks the conclusion of occupation.

They also worry the proposed authority spills into granting the mission a governance role 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 Considerations 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 acceptable to the board of peace”, the draft states. It also “emphasizes the significance” of full relief in the territory, including through the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the humanitarian organizations.

Nonetheless, it opens the door the exclusion of “any organisation found to have misused such assistance”. The wording permits the council excluding the UN relief agency, the body that the global judicial body has ruled is the lawful distributor of aid.

Global Political Initiatives

French officials and Saudi Arabia are already advocating for a mention to a Palestinian state to be added in the document. The Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman, is scheduled in the US presidential residence on the specified date, and a Saudi foreign ministry official has said that a mention to a independent Palestine is a prerequisite.

The Palestinian Authority leader, Mahmoud Abbas, met the French leader, Emmanuel Macron, in the French capital on this week to review the authority's function.

Neither the UN nor the 15 strong UNSC are given a supervisory function over the stabilisation force, monitoring the execution of the resolution, a point mostly overlooked by the proposed document. No details is specified about the financing of this stabilisation mission, which, as per the Americans, should be mostly covered by Gulf states, with the Kingdom taking the lead.

Israeli Demands and Local Developments

Israeli authorities is requesting written guarantees from the US that it be allowed to follow the pattern of the Lebanese situation and reserve the right to re-enter Gaza if it believes demilitarization is not occurring at a level or speed it demands.

The request was presented to the former US advisor, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff. Kushner was in Jerusalem on this week to review developments on the truce and Witkoff was scheduled to appear subsequently the that day.

Only the bodies of four of the initial hundreds of captives are still unreturned.

Separately, Israel has been proposing that the territory could yet be split in two with reconstruction work beginning in the Israel occupied parts of the strip. Western diplomats insist that this is no part of the Trump plan.