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Plans for an multinational security mission authorized by the UN to disarm Hamas in Gaza are encountering growing opposition after the UAE announced it will not join due to the absence of a well-defined legal structure.

Increasing Global Concerns

Israel have already excluded Turkish involvement, and Jordan's King Abdullah has declared that Jordanian forces will not participate. The Azerbaijani government, once mooted as a potential participant, did not attend a planning session in Istanbul and said it would not take part unless a full ceasefire was in place.

Emirati officials lacks clarity on a clear structure for the stability mission and under such circumstances declines involvement, but backs all political initiatives towards peace – and remain at the vanguard of relief efforts.

Regional Doubts and Legal Issues

The UAE's announcement, delivered by diplomatic representative Dr Anwar Gargash at a forum in Abu Dhabi, highlights regional reservations about the terms of a US-drafted document previously distributed to delegates at the UN in NYC. The draft assigns responsibility on a US-directed stabilisation force to be the principal means of ensuring order in Gaza after Israeli forces have left the territory.

Arab states would like greater duties to be assigned to a separate Palestinian law enforcement agency. International law would also prohibit external forces from deploying into contested Palestinian territories unless there was clear Palestinian consent; otherwise, the force could be viewed as coercive under UN law, and potentially stabilising an illegal Israeli occupation.

Local Viewpoints and Calls for Definition

A Palestinian American co-author of the ceasefire proposal commented: “It is critical that the mission be sent not to stabilise the unlawful Israeli occupation, but to uphold global standards and terminate it. The force will work as long as it operates in the entire occupied territory, including the occupied territories, at the request of Palestine, and has a clear objective to conclude the presence within the context of a sovereign Palestinian state.”

There is no reference to the West Bank in the American proposal, or to a sovereign Palestine, or a two-state solution, a prospect that Israeli leadership opposes.

Ongoing Negotiations and Potential Risks

Detailed negotiations on the mission mandate, including its leadership structure, began officially on last week in New York, and appear to be protracted – risking the emergence of a power gap in Gaza that may strengthen Hamas.

The US is proposing that it lead the mission although it will not have a large number of personnel involved on the terrain. It has already effectively assumed command of the distribution of relief supplies into Gaza from a new civil military coordination centre based in the neighboring country.

Mission Mandate and Administrative Function

The draft American document defines the purpose of the security mission as “together with the recently prepared and vetted law enforcement to assist in protecting frontier zones, stabilise the security environment in Gaza by ensuring the process of demilitarising the Gaza Strip including the elimination and prevention of reconstructing the military terror and hostile facilities as well as the lasting decommissioning of arms from non-state armed groups”.

The force, reporting to a “peace council” chaired by Donald Trump, and not to the United Nations, 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 the group is to disarm, the faction will only do so to local counterparts, likely in the civilian police force, at a time that, from the militant viewpoint, marks the end of occupation.

They also fear the draft mandate extends to giving the stabilisation force a governance role in Gaza, a responsibility that was to be set aside for a local technocratic committee working in conjunction with a reformed Palestinian Authority.

Aid Considerations and Funding Questions

This “transitional governance administration” in the strip would remain until “the local government has satisfactorily completed its restructuring plan, the satisfaction of which shall be approved to the board of peace”, the proposal says. It also “underscores the significance” of unhindered humanitarian aid in Gaza, including through the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the Red Crescent.

However, it opens the door the removal of “any group determined to have improperly used such assistance”. The wording leaves open the council excluding the UN relief agency, the body that the international court of justice has ruled is the lawful provider of assistance.

Global Political Efforts

French officials and Saudi representatives are currently advocating 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 18 November, and a Saudi foreign ministry official has stated that a mention to a independent Palestine is a requirement.

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

Not the UN nor the 15 strong security council are given a oversight function over the mission, monitoring the implementation of the proposal, a aspect mostly overlooked by the proposed document. Nothing is specified about the financing of this security operation, which, according to the Americans, should be mostly borne by Gulf states, with the Kingdom assuming primary responsibility.

Israeli Requests and Local Situations

Israeli authorities is seeking formal assurances from the United States that it be permitted to emulate the pattern of the Lebanese situation and reserve the authority to re-enter the territory if it considers disarmament is not occurring at a scale 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 Jerusalem on Monday to discuss progress on the ceasefire and Witkoff was scheduled to appear subsequently the same day.

Only the bodies of four of the original hundreds of Israeli hostages are still unreturned.

Separately, Israel has been suggesting that the Gaza Strip could yet be divided in two with rebuilding efforts beginning in the Israel occupied parts of the region. International officials maintain that this is not part of the former US administration's proposal.