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Proposals for an multinational security mission mandated by the UN to disarm Hamas in the Gaza Strip are facing increasing opposition after the UAE announced it would not take part due to the lack of a well-defined legal framework.

Increasing Global Concerns

Israel have previously ruled out Turkish involvement, and the Jordanian King Abdullah has stated that his country's forces will not join. Azerbaijan, previously mooted as a possible contributor, was absent from a preparatory meeting in Istanbul and said it would not contribute unless a full truce was in place.

The UAE lacks clarity on a defined framework for the stability force and in this situation declines involvement, but backs all diplomatic efforts towards peace – and stay at the vanguard of humanitarian aid.

Regional Doubts and Juridical Issues

The Emirati decision, delivered by diplomatic representative Dr Anwar Gargash at a conference in the UAE capital, reflects regional reservations about the terms of a US-drafted document previously distributed to delegates at the UN in NYC. The draft places an onus on a US-directed stabilisation force to be the primary means of ensuring order in the territory after Israeli forces have withdrawn from the region.

Arab states would prefer greater responsibilities to be given to a separate Palestinian civilian police force. International law would also prohibit external forces from deploying into contested Palestine unless there was explicit local approval; otherwise, the mission could be viewed as imposed under UN law, and potentially reinforcing an illegal presence.

Local Viewpoints and Calls for Definition

A Palestinian American co-author of the Palestinian armistice plan commented: “It is critical that the mission be deployed not to reinforce the unlawful Israeli occupation, but to enforce international law and end it. The mission will succeed as long as it operates in the whole disputed land, including the occupied territories, at the invitation of the Palestinian authorities, and has a clear objective to conclude the occupation within the context of a sovereign Palestinian state.”

The draft contains no reference to the occupied territories in the US draft resolution, or to a sovereign Palestine, or a two-state solution, a outcome that Israel rejects.

Ongoing Discussions and Potential Dangers

Detailed talks on the mission authority, including its command and control, began formally on last week in the UN headquarters, and look likely to be protracted – potentially creating the emergence of a power gap in the strip that may strengthen Hamas.

The United States is proposing that it lead the force although it will not have many personnel involved on the terrain. It has already effectively assumed command of the distribution of humanitarian aid into the territory from a recently established logistical hub based in the neighboring country.

Mission Mandate and Administrative Function

The draft American document outlines the aim of the security mission as “together with the newly trained and vetted police force to help secure border areas, secure the security environment in the region by ensuring the procedure of disarming the Gaza Strip including the elimination and blocking of rebuilding the military terror and hostile facilities as well as the lasting decommissioning of arms from non-state armed groups”.

The mission, reporting to a “board of peace” led by the former US president, and not to the UN, would be required to use “all necessary measures” to achieve its objectives.

Regional powers including Qatari officials are also worried that this authority is overly broad, and if the group is to disarm, the group will solely do so to local counterparts, probably in the civilian police force, at a time that, from the Hamas perspective, marks the conclusion of occupation.

They also fear the draft mandate spills into giving the stabilisation force a governance function in Gaza, a responsibility that was to be reserved for a local expert panel working in conjunction with a reformed Palestinian Authority.

Humanitarian Considerations and Funding Issues

This “interim authority” in the strip would stay until “the Palestinian Authority has satisfactorily finished its restructuring plan, the satisfaction of which shall be approved to the board of peace”, the proposal says. It also “underscores the importance” of unhindered relief in the territory, including through the UN, the ICRC, and the humanitarian organizations.

Nonetheless, it opens the door the exclusion of “any organisation found to have improperly used such aid”. The phrase permits the council barring Unrwa, the organization that the global judicial body has ruled is the lawful distributor of aid.

Global Diplomatic Initiatives

French officials and Saudi Arabia are already pressing for a reference to a sovereign Palestine to be added in the document. The Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman, is scheduled in the White House on the specified date, and a Saudi foreign ministry official has said that a reference to a independent Palestine is a prerequisite.

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

Not the UN nor the 15 strong UNSC are assigned a supervisory role over the mission, supervising the implementation of the proposal, a point mostly ignored by the draft text. No details is specified about the financing of this stabilisation mission, which, according to the US officials, should be largely borne by regional nations, with the Kingdom assuming primary responsibility.

Israeli Requests and Regional Situations

Israel is requesting written guarantees from the United States that it be allowed to follow the pattern of Lebanon and retain the right to re-enter Gaza if it believes disarmament is not taking place at a scale or speed it demands.

The Israeli proposal was presented to the former US advisor, Donald Trump’s relative, and the American diplomat, Steve Witkoff. Kushner was in the Israeli capital on Monday to review developments on the truce and Witkoff was scheduled to appear subsequently the that day.

Only the remains of a small number of the original 251 captives are still unreturned.

Independently, Israel has been proposing that the territory could still be split in two parts with reconstruction work beginning in the Israeli-controlled parts of the region. Western diplomats insist that this is no part of the former US administration's proposal.