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Proposals for an international stabilisation force mandated by the UN to demilitarize the militant group in the Gaza Strip are encountering increasing resistance after the UAE announced it will not take part due to the absence of a well-defined legal structure.

Growing International Reservations

Israel have already ruled out Turkish involvement, and the Jordanian King Abdullah has stated that Jordanian troops will not participate. Azerbaijan, previously considered as a possible participant, did not attend a planning meeting in Turkey and indicated it would not contribute unless a complete ceasefire was in place.

The UAE lacks clarity on a clear structure for the stability mission and in this situation will not participate, but will support all political initiatives towards resolution – and remain at the forefront of humanitarian aid.

Regional Skepticism and Legal Concerns

The UAE's announcement, made by senior envoy Dr Anwar Gargash at a forum in Abu Dhabi, reflects Arab doubts about the terms of a US-drafted resolution already circulated to diplomats at the UN in New York. The proposal assigns responsibility on a American-led stabilisation force to be the principal means of ensuring security in the territory after Israeli forces have left the territory.

Regional governments would prefer expanded responsibilities to be given to a separate local civilian police force. Global jurisprudence would also prohibit external forces from entering occupied Palestinian territories unless there was clear Palestinian consent; otherwise, the force could be seen as coercive under international statutes, and potentially reinforcing an unlawful Israeli occupation.

Local Perspectives and Appeals for Clarity

A Palestinian American co-author of the Palestinian armistice plan said: “It is essential that the force be deployed not to stabilise the unlawful Israeli occupation, but to enforce international law and end it. The mission will succeed as long as it enters the entire occupied territory, including the West Bank, at the invitation of the Palestinian authorities, and has a clear goal to end the presence within the framework of a independent state of Palestine.”

The draft contains no mention to the occupied territories in the US draft resolution, or to a sovereign Palestine, or a peaceful resolution, a outcome that Israeli leadership opposes.

Continuing Negotiations and Possible Dangers

Detailed talks on the mission mandate, including its leadership structure, began formally on Thursday in New York, and look likely to be lengthy – risking the development of a vacuum in Gaza that may empower militant factions.

The US is proposing that it command the mission although it will not have many personnel deployed on the terrain. It has already effectively taken control of the delivery of humanitarian aid into the territory from a recently established civil military coordination centre based in the neighboring country.

Force Mandate and Governance Role

The draft US resolution defines the purpose of the stabilisation force as “along with the recently prepared and vetted police force to assist in protecting frontier zones, stabilise the safety situation in Gaza by ensuring the process of disarming the territory including the elimination and prevention of reconstructing the military terror and offensive infrastructure as well as the lasting decommissioning of arms from militant factions”.

The force, answerable to a “peace council” led by the former US president, and not to the United Nations, would be mandated to use “any required actions” to fulfill its objectives.

Arab states including Qatar are also concerned that this mandate is too expansive, and if Hamas is to lay down arms, the group will solely do so to fellow Palestinians, probably in the civilian police force, at a time that, from the militant perspective, signifies the end of Israeli presence.

They also worry the proposed authority extends to granting the stabilisation force a administrative function in Gaza, a task that was to be set aside for a local expert panel working in cooperation with a reformed local government.

Aid Aspects and Financial Questions

This “interim authority” in the strip would stay until “the Palestinian Authority has adequately finished its restructuring plan, the approval of which shall be approved to the BoP”, the proposal states. It also “emphasizes the importance” of full relief in Gaza, including through the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the Red Crescent.

Nonetheless, it opens the door the removal of “any group determined to have misused such aid”. The phrase leaves open the board of peace excluding the UN relief agency, the organization that the global judicial body has ruled is the lawful distributor of aid.

Global Diplomatic Initiatives

France and Saudi Arabia are currently pressing for a reference to a sovereign Palestine to be added in the resolution. The Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman, is due in the White House on 18 November, and a Saudi foreign ministry official has stated that a mention to a independent Palestine is a prerequisite.

The PA chair, Mahmoud Abbas, met the French leader, Emmanuel Macron, in the French capital on Monday to review the authority's function.

Neither the UN nor the 15 strong UNSC are given a supervisory role over the stabilisation force, supervising the execution of the proposal, a point largely ignored by the draft text. No details is outlined about the financing of this security operation, which, according to the Americans, should be mostly covered by Gulf states, with the Kingdom assuming primary responsibility.

Israel's Demands and Local Situations

Israeli authorities is requesting formal assurances from the US that it be permitted to emulate the pattern of Lebanon and reserve the authority to return to Gaza if it believes demilitarization is not occurring at a scale or speed it demands.

The request was presented to Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and the American diplomat, Steve Witkoff. Kushner was in the Israeli capital on this week to discuss progress on the ceasefire and Witkoff was scheduled to arrive subsequently the same day.

Just the bodies of four of the original 251 captives remain not recovered.

Separately, Israel has been proposing that the Gaza Strip could still be divided in two parts with reconstruction work starting in the Israel occupied parts of the region. Western diplomats maintain that this is no part of the Trump plan.