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Plans 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 lack of a well-defined legal framework.

Increasing International Concerns

Israel have previously ruled out Turkey participation, and Jordan's King Abdullah has stated that his country's troops will not participate. Azerbaijan, once mooted as a potential contributor, was absent from a preparatory session in Turkey and indicated it would not contribute unless a complete truce was established.

Emirati officials lacks clarity on a defined framework for the stability mission and under such circumstances declines involvement, but backs all diplomatic efforts towards resolution – and stay at the vanguard of relief efforts.

Arab Skepticism and Legal Concerns

The Emirati decision, made by senior envoy Dr Anwar Gargash at a conference in Abu Dhabi, reflects regional doubts about the terms of a American-proposed resolution previously circulated to diplomats at the UN in NYC. The proposal places an onus on a US-directed security mission to be the principal means of imposing order in the territory after Israel have left the region.

Regional governments would like expanded responsibilities to be assigned to a separate Palestinian law enforcement agency. Global jurisprudence would also forbid foreign troops from entering occupied Palestinian territories unless there was clear local approval; without it, the mission could be viewed as coercive under UN law, and potentially stabilising an illegal presence.

Local Viewpoints and Calls for Definition

Jamal Nusseibeh of the Palestinian armistice plan commented: “It is critical that the force be deployed not to stabilise the illegal presence, but to uphold international law and terminate it. The force will work as long as it enters the entire occupied territory, including the occupied territories, at the request of the Palestinian authorities, and has a defined objective to end the occupation within the context of a independent state of Palestine.”

The draft contains no mention to the West Bank in the US draft resolution, or to a sovereign Palestine, or a two-state solution, a prospect that Israeli leadership opposes.

Ongoing Negotiations and Potential Risks

Detailed talks on the stabilisation force authority, including its leadership structure, began formally on last week in the UN headquarters, and look likely to be lengthy – risking the development of a power gap in the strip that may strengthen militant factions.

The United States is proposing that it lead the force although it will not have a large number of troops involved on the ground. It has already in effect taken control of the distribution of relief supplies into the territory from a new civil military coordination centre based in the neighboring country.

Mission Objectives and Administrative Role

The draft US resolution outlines the purpose of the security mission as “together with the recently prepared and vetted law enforcement to help secure border areas, secure the security environment in the region by guaranteeing the procedure of disarming the Gaza Strip including the elimination and prevention of reconstructing the militant and offensive infrastructure as well as the lasting decommissioning of arms from militant factions”.

The force, reporting to a “peace council” chaired by Donald Trump, and not to the UN, would be mandated to use “all necessary measures” to fulfill its objectives.

Arab states including Qatar 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 local counterparts, likely in the local law enforcement, at a moment that, from the Hamas perspective, marks the end of Israeli presence.

They also fear the draft mandate spills into giving the stabilisation force a governance function in the territory, a task that was to be set aside for a local technocratic committee working in cooperation with a reformed local government.

Aid Considerations and Financial Issues

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

Nonetheless, it allows for the exclusion of “any group found to have improperly used such aid”. The phrase leaves open the board of peace barring Unrwa, the organization that the global judicial body has said is the legal provider of assistance.

International Diplomatic Efforts

France and Saudi representatives are already pressing for a reference to a sovereign Palestine to be added in the document. The Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is scheduled in the White House on the specified date, and a Saudi foreign ministry official has said that a mention to a independent Palestine is a prerequisite.

The Palestinian Authority leader, Mahmoud Abbas, held talks with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in Paris on this week to review the authority's function.

Not the United Nations nor the 15 strong security council are given a oversight function over the mission, supervising the execution of the resolution, a point largely ignored by the proposed document. No details is specified about the funding of this stabilisation mission, which, as per the Americans, should be largely borne by regional nations, with Saudi Arabia assuming primary responsibility.

Israel's Demands and Local Developments

Israel is seeking formal assurances from the US that it be allowed to follow the model of the Lebanese situation and reserve the authority to re-enter the territory if it considers demilitarization is not taking place at a level or speed it requires.

The Israeli proposal was put to the former US advisor, the ex-president's relative, and the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff. Kushner was in the Israeli capital on Monday to discuss developments on the truce and the envoy was scheduled to appear subsequently the that day.

Just the bodies of four of the initial hundreds of Israeli hostages are still not recovered.

Separately, Israeli officials has been proposing that the territory could yet be divided in two with reconstruction work starting in the Israeli-controlled areas of the region. Western diplomats maintain that this is no part of the former US administration's proposal.