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Plans for an international stabilisation force authorized by the United Nations to disarm the militant group in Gaza are facing increasing resistance after the United Arab Emirates stated it would not join due to the lack of a clear legal framework.

Growing International Concerns

Israel have previously excluded Turkey involvement, and the Jordanian King Abdullah has declared that his country's forces will not participate. The Azerbaijani government, once considered as a potential contributor, did not attend a preparatory meeting in Turkey and indicated it would not contribute unless a full ceasefire was in place.

Emirati officials lacks clarity on a clear framework for the stability force and in this situation will not participate, but backs all political initiatives towards peace – and remain at the forefront of relief efforts.

Regional Doubts and Juridical Issues

The UAE's decision, delivered by diplomatic representative Dr Anwar Gargash at a forum in the UAE capital, highlights Arab reservations about the terms of a US-drafted resolution already circulated to delegates at the UN in NYC. The draft assigns responsibility on a US-directed stabilisation force to be the principal means of ensuring security in the territory after Israeli forces have left the region.

Regional governments would prefer expanded responsibilities to be given to a distinct local law enforcement agency. Global jurisprudence would also prohibit foreign troops from entering contested Palestine unless there was clear local approval; without it, the force could be seen as coercive under UN law, and potentially stabilising an unlawful presence.

Local Perspectives and Calls for Clarity

Jamal Nusseibeh of the Palestinian armistice plan said: “It is essential that the mission be sent not to reinforce the unlawful Israeli occupation, but to enforce international law and terminate it. The mission will work as long as it enters the entire occupied territory, including the occupied territories, at the invitation of the Palestinian authorities, and has a clear goal to end the occupation within the context of a independent state of Palestine.”

There is no reference to the occupied territories in the US draft resolution, or to a sovereign Palestine, or a peaceful resolution, a prospect that Israel opposes.

Ongoing Negotiations and Potential Dangers

In-depth talks on the mission mandate, including its leadership structure, began formally on Thursday in the UN headquarters, and appear to be lengthy – risking the development of a power gap in the strip that may empower Hamas.

The US is suggesting that it command the mission although it will not have many personnel deployed on the terrain. It has already in effect assumed command of the delivery of relief supplies into the territory from a new logistical hub based in the neighboring country.

Force Mandate and Governance Function

The proposed American document defines the purpose of the stabilisation force as “along with the newly trained and vetted police force to help secure border areas, stabilise the security environment in Gaza by ensuring the procedure of demilitarising the Gaza Strip including the destruction and blocking of reconstructing the military terror and hostile facilities as well as the permanent removal of weapons from militant factions”.

The force, answerable to a “board of peace” led by the former US president, and not to the United Nations, would be required to use “all necessary measures” to fulfill its goals.

Arab states including Qatari officials are also concerned that this authority is too expansive, and if the group is to lay down arms, the group will only do so to fellow Palestinians, probably in the civilian police force, at a moment that, from the militant viewpoint, signifies the conclusion of Israeli presence.

They also worry the proposed authority spills into giving the stabilisation force a administrative function in the territory, a task that was to be set aside for a Palestinian expert panel working in cooperation with a reformed Palestinian Authority.

Humanitarian Considerations and Funding Issues

This “transitional governance administration” in the strip would stay until “the Palestinian Authority has satisfactorily finished its restructuring plan, the approval of which shall be acceptable to the board of peace”, the proposal states. It also “underscores the significance” of unhindered relief in the territory, including through the UN, the ICRC, and the Red Crescent.

However, it allows for the exclusion of “any group found to have improperly used such assistance”. The wording permits the board of peace barring the UN relief agency, the body that the global judicial body has ruled is the lawful distributor of assistance.

Global Diplomatic Initiatives

French officials and Saudi representatives are already advocating for a reference to a sovereign Palestine to be included in the document. The Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman, is scheduled in the White House on the specified date, and Manal Radwan has said that a mention to a independent Palestine is a requirement.

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

Neither the United Nations nor the 15-member UNSC are assigned a supervisory function over the mission, supervising the implementation of the resolution, a point mostly ignored by the draft text. Nothing is specified about the funding of this stabilisation mission, which, as per the US officials, should be mostly borne by regional nations, with Saudi Arabia taking the lead.

Israeli Requests and Local Developments

Israel is requesting written guarantees from the US that it be permitted to emulate the pattern of the Lebanese situation and reserve the authority to re-enter Gaza if it believes demilitarization is not occurring at a scale or speed it requires.

The request was put to the former US advisor, the ex-president's relative, and the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff. The advisor was in the Israeli capital on this week to discuss developments on the truce and the envoy was scheduled to arrive later the that day.

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

Independently, Israeli officials has been suggesting that the Gaza Strip could still be divided in two parts with reconstruction work starting in the Israel occupied parts of the strip. International officials maintain that this is not part of the Trump plan.