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Proposals for an international security mission authorized by the United Nations to demilitarize the militant group in the Gaza Strip are facing growing resistance after the United Arab Emirates announced it would not join due to the absence of a well-defined legal structure.

Growing International Concerns

Israel have previously excluded Turkish involvement, and Jordan's King Abdullah has declared that his country's forces will not participate. The Azerbaijani government, previously considered as a potential participant, was absent from a planning session in Istanbul and said it would not take part unless a full truce was in place.

The UAE lacks clarity on a defined framework for the stabilisation mission and in this situation declines involvement, but will support all political efforts towards resolution – and stay at the vanguard of relief efforts.

Arab Doubts and Juridical Issues

The UAE's decision, delivered by senior envoy Dr Anwar Gargash at a conference in the UAE capital, reflects regional reservations about the terms of a US-drafted resolution previously distributed to delegates at the UN in NYC. The draft places an onus on a US-directed security mission to be the principal means of ensuring order in Gaza after Israel have withdrawn from the region.

Arab states would prefer expanded duties to be given to a separate Palestinian civilian police force. Global jurisprudence would also forbid foreign troops from entering contested Palestinian territories unless there was explicit Palestinian consent; otherwise, the force could be viewed as coercive under international statutes, and potentially reinforcing an illegal presence.

Palestinian Viewpoints and Calls for Clarity

Jamal Nusseibeh of the Palestinian armistice plan said: “It is essential that the mission be sent not to stabilise the unlawful Israeli occupation, but to uphold global standards and end it. The mission will succeed as long as it enters the whole disputed land, including the occupied territories, at the invitation of Palestine, and has a defined objective to conclude the presence within the framework of a independent state of Palestine.”

The draft contains 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 Dangers

Detailed negotiations on the stabilisation force mandate, including its command and control, started formally on Thursday in the UN headquarters, and look likely to be protracted – potentially creating the development of a vacuum in Gaza that may empower Hamas.

The United States is proposing that it command the mission although it will not have a large number of troops involved on the ground. It has already in effect taken control of the delivery of relief supplies into Gaza from a recently established civil military coordination centre based in Israel.

Force Mandate and Governance Function

The draft American document outlines the purpose of the security mission as “together with the newly trained and vetted law enforcement to help secure frontier zones, secure the safety situation in Gaza by ensuring the procedure of disarming the territory including the elimination and prevention of rebuilding the militant and hostile facilities as well as the permanent removal of arms from non-state armed groups”.

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

Regional powers including Qatar are also concerned that this mandate is overly broad, and if the group is to lay down arms, the group will only do so to local counterparts, probably in the local law enforcement, at a moment that, from the Hamas perspective, signifies the conclusion of occupation.

They also worry the proposed authority extends to giving the stabilisation force a governance function in the territory, a task that was to be set aside for a Palestinian technocratic committee working in conjunction with a restructured Palestinian Authority.

Humanitarian Considerations and Funding Questions

This “transitional governance administration” in the strip would stay until “the Palestinian Authority has satisfactorily completed its restructuring plan, the approval of which shall be acceptable to the board of peace”, the proposal says. It also “underscores the importance” of full relief in Gaza, including through the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the Red Crescent.

However, it opens the door the removal of “any organisation determined to have misused such aid”. The phrase leaves open the board of peace barring Unrwa, the body that the international court of justice has said is the legal distributor of aid.

International Diplomatic Initiatives

French officials and Saudi representatives are already pressing for a reference to a sovereign Palestine to be added in the document. The Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman, is due in the White House on 18 November, and Manal Radwan has stated that a mention to a Palestinian state is a prerequisite.

The Palestinian Authority leader, Mahmoud Abbas, met the French leader, Emmanuel Macron, in Paris on Monday to discuss the authority's function.

Not the UN nor the 15 strong UNSC are assigned a oversight function over the mission, monitoring the implementation of the proposal, a point largely overlooked by the draft text. Nothing is specified about the funding of this security operation, which, according to the US officials, should be mostly covered by Gulf states, with the Kingdom assuming primary responsibility.

Israel's Demands and Local Developments

Israel is seeking written guarantees from the US that it be permitted to emulate the model of Lebanon and reserve the right to re-enter the territory if it considers demilitarization is not occurring at a level or pace it requires.

The request was presented to the former US advisor, the ex-president's relative, and the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff. Kushner was in Jerusalem on Monday to review developments on the truce and the envoy was due to arrive subsequently the that day.

Only the remains of a small number of the original 251 Israeli hostages remain not recovered.

Separately, Israel has been suggesting that the Gaza Strip could still be divided in two parts with rebuilding efforts beginning in the Israel occupied areas of the strip. International officials insist that this is no part of the Trump plan.