🔗 Share this article

Plans for an multinational stabilisation force authorized by the UN to disarm Hamas in Gaza are facing increasing opposition after the UAE stated it would not join due to the lack of a clear legal framework.

Growing Global Concerns

Israeli authorities have previously ruled out Turkey involvement, and Jordan's King Abdullah has declared that Jordanian troops will not join. The Azerbaijani government, once considered as a possible participant, was absent from a preparatory meeting in Istanbul and said it would not take part unless a full truce was in place.

Emirati officials lacks clarity on a defined framework for the stabilisation mission and in this situation declines involvement, but will support all diplomatic efforts towards peace – and remain at the forefront of humanitarian aid.

Arab Doubts and Legal Issues

The UAE's decision, delivered by diplomatic representative Dr Anwar Gargash at a forum in Abu Dhabi, highlights Arab reservations about the terms of a American-proposed document previously distributed to diplomats at the UN in New York. The proposal places an onus on a US-directed stabilisation force to be the principal means of imposing order in the territory after Israeli forces have withdrawn from the region.

Regional governments would prefer greater duties to be assigned to a separate local law enforcement agency. Global jurisprudence would also prohibit external forces from entering contested Palestinian territories unless there was clear local approval; otherwise, the force could be viewed as imposed under international statutes, and arguably stabilising an unlawful Israeli occupation.

Local Viewpoints and Appeals for Definition

A Palestinian American co-author of the Palestinian armistice plan commented: “It is essential that the force be deployed not to stabilise the unlawful Israeli occupation, but to enforce global standards and terminate it. The mission will succeed as long as it enters the whole occupied territory, including the occupied territories, at the invitation of the Palestinian authorities, and has a defined objective to conclude the occupation within the framework of a independent Palestinian state.”

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 outcome that Israel opposes.

Continuing Negotiations and Potential Dangers

Detailed negotiations on the stabilisation force authority, including its command and control, started formally on last week in New York, and appear to be lengthy – risking the emergence of a power gap in the strip that may empower Hamas.

The United States is proposing that it command the force although it will not have a large number of personnel deployed on the ground. It has already effectively taken control of the delivery of relief supplies into Gaza from a recently established civil military coordination centre based in the neighboring country.

Mission Mandate and Governance Role

The proposed US resolution outlines the purpose of the stabilisation force as “together with the newly trained and vetted police force to assist in protecting frontier zones, stabilise the safety situation in the region by ensuring the procedure of disarming the territory including the destruction and blocking of rebuilding the militant and hostile facilities as well as the permanent removal of weapons from non-state armed groups”.

The force, answerable to a “peace council” led by Donald Trump, and not to the UN, would be mandated to use “any required actions” to fulfill its goals.

Regional powers including Qatari officials are also concerned that this authority is too expansive, and if the group is to disarm, the faction will solely do so to local counterparts, probably in the civilian police force, at a moment that, from the Hamas perspective, signifies the end of Israeli presence.

They also fear the proposed authority extends to giving the stabilisation force a administrative function in the territory, a task that was to be set aside for a Palestinian technocratic committee working in cooperation with a reformed Palestinian Authority.

Aid Considerations and Funding Questions

This “interim authority” in the strip would stay until “the local government has adequately finished its reform program, the approval of which shall be approved to the board of peace”, the draft states. It also “underscores the significance” of unhindered humanitarian aid in the territory, including through the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the Red Crescent.

However, it opens the door the exclusion of “any organisation found to have misused such aid”. The phrase leaves open the board of peace excluding the UN relief agency, the organization that the international court of justice has said is the lawful distributor of assistance.

Global Diplomatic Efforts

French officials and Saudi Arabia are currently advocating for a reference to a Palestinian state to be added in the resolution. The Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman, is due in the US presidential residence 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 the French capital on this week to review the authority's function.

Not the UN nor the 15-member UNSC are assigned a supervisory role over the mission, supervising the implementation of the proposal, a point mostly overlooked by the draft text. No details is specified about the financing of this stabilisation mission, which, as per the Americans, should be mostly covered by regional nations, with Saudi Arabia assuming primary responsibility.

Israel's Demands and Regional Developments

Israeli authorities is seeking written guarantees from the United States that it be allowed to follow the pattern of the Lebanese situation and reserve the authority to return to the territory if it believes demilitarization is not taking place at a scale or pace it requires.

The request was put to the former US advisor, Donald Trump’s relative, and the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff. Kushner was in Jerusalem on Monday to review progress on the truce and Witkoff was scheduled to arrive subsequently the that day.

Just the remains of four of the original 251 captives remain unreturned.

Independently, Israel has been suggesting that the territory could still be split in two with rebuilding efforts starting in the Israel occupied parts of the strip. International officials insist that this is not part of the former US administration's proposal.