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Proposals for an international security mission mandated by the UN to demilitarize Hamas in Gaza are facing increasing resistance after the United Arab Emirates stated it will not take part due to the absence of a well-defined legal framework.

Growing International Concerns

Israel have already ruled out Turkish participation, and the Jordanian King Abdullah has stated that his country's troops will not join. Azerbaijan, previously mooted as a potential participant, did not attend a planning meeting in Turkey and indicated it would not take part unless a full ceasefire was established.

Emirati officials lacks clarity on a defined framework for the stability mission and under such circumstances will not participate, but will support all diplomatic efforts towards resolution – and remain at the vanguard of humanitarian aid.

Regional Doubts and Legal Concerns

The UAE's decision, delivered 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 assigns responsibility on a American-led security mission to be the principal means of ensuring security in Gaza after Israel have left the territory.

Arab states would prefer greater responsibilities to be given to a separate Palestinian civilian police force. Global jurisprudence would also forbid foreign troops from deploying into contested Palestine unless there was clear local approval; without it, the mission could be seen as coercive under UN law, and potentially stabilising an unlawful presence.

Palestinian Viewpoints and Calls for Definition

Jamal Nusseibeh of the ceasefire proposal said: “It is critical that the mission be deployed not to reinforce the illegal Israeli occupation, but to uphold global standards and terminate it. The force will succeed as long as it operates in the entire disputed land, including the West Bank, at the invitation of the Palestinian authorities, and has a defined objective to end the presence within the context of a sovereign Palestinian state.”

There is no mention to the occupied territories in the US draft resolution, or to a Palestinian state, or a two-state solution, a prospect that Israeli leadership opposes.

Ongoing Discussions and Potential Risks

In-depth talks on the mission authority, including its command and control, started formally on last week in the UN headquarters, and appear to be lengthy – risking the emergence of a power gap in the strip that may empower militant factions.

The US is proposing that it lead the force although it will not have a large number of troops deployed on the terrain. It has already effectively taken control of the distribution of relief supplies into the territory from a recently established logistical hub based in the neighboring country.

Force Mandate and Governance Function

The draft American document defines the purpose of the stabilisation force as “together with the recently prepared and vetted police force to help secure frontier zones, secure the security environment in the region by ensuring the procedure of disarming the territory including the elimination and prevention of rebuilding the militant and offensive infrastructure as well as the lasting removal of weapons from militant factions”.

The mission, answerable to a “board of peace” chaired by the former US president, and not to the UN, would be mandated 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 solely do so to fellow Palestinians, likely in the civilian police force, at a time that, from the Hamas perspective, signifies the end of occupation.

They also fear the proposed authority extends to giving the mission a governance role in Gaza, a task that was to be reserved for a Palestinian expert panel working in cooperation with a restructured Palestinian Authority.

Aid Aspects and Funding Issues

This “transitional governance administration” in Gaza would stay until “the local government has satisfactorily finished its restructuring plan, the approval of which shall be acceptable to the BoP”, the proposal states. It also “emphasizes the significance” of unhindered relief in the territory, including through the United Nations, the ICRC, and the Red Crescent.

However, it allows for the removal of “any organisation found to have improperly used such assistance”. The wording leaves open the board of peace barring the UN relief agency, the organization that the international court of justice 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 included in the resolution. 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 Palestinian state is a requirement.

The PA chair, Mahmoud Abbas, met the French leader, Emmanuel Macron, in the French capital on Monday to discuss the PA role.

Neither the United Nations nor the 15 strong security council are given a supervisory role over the stabilisation force, supervising the implementation of the resolution, a aspect mostly overlooked by the draft text. No details is outlined about the financing of this security operation, which, according to the Americans, should be largely borne by Gulf states, with Saudi Arabia assuming primary responsibility.

Israel's Demands and Regional Developments

Israeli authorities is requesting written guarantees from the United States that it be permitted to follow the pattern of the Lebanese situation and retain the right to re-enter the territory if it considers disarmament is not taking place at a level or speed it requires.

The Israeli proposal was put to Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff. Kushner was in the Israeli capital on Monday to discuss progress on the truce and Witkoff was due to appear subsequently the that day.

Just the remains of a small number of the initial hundreds of Israeli hostages remain unreturned.

Separately, Israeli officials has been suggesting that the territory could yet be divided in two parts with reconstruction work beginning in the Israel occupied areas of the region. Western diplomats maintain that this is no part of the former US administration's proposal.