🔗 Share this article

Plans for an multinational security mission authorized by the UN to demilitarize Hamas in Gaza are encountering increasing opposition after the UAE announced it will not join due to the absence of a clear legal structure.

Increasing International Concerns

Israel have already ruled out Turkey involvement, and Jordan's King Abdullah has stated that Jordanian forces will not participate. The Azerbaijani government, once considered as a potential participant, did not attend a planning meeting in Turkey and said it would not contribute unless a full truce was established.

The UAE lacks clarity on a defined framework for the stabilisation mission and under such circumstances declines involvement, but backs all diplomatic efforts towards resolution – and remain at the vanguard of relief efforts.

Arab Doubts and Legal Issues

The Emirati decision, made by senior envoy Dr Anwar Gargash at a forum in the UAE capital, highlights Arab reservations about the terms of a American-proposed document previously distributed to diplomats at the UN in NYC. The draft assigns responsibility on a American-led stabilisation force to be the primary means of imposing order in Gaza after Israel have withdrawn from the territory.

Regional governments would prefer expanded responsibilities to be given to a separate local civilian police force. International law would also forbid foreign troops from entering occupied Palestinian territories unless there was clear Palestinian consent; otherwise, the mission could be seen as coercive under UN law, and arguably stabilising an illegal Israeli occupation.

Palestinian Perspectives and Appeals for Clarity

Jamal Nusseibeh of the Palestinian armistice plan commented: “It is critical that the mission be sent not to reinforce the unlawful Israeli occupation, but to uphold global standards and terminate it. The mission will succeed as long as it operates in the whole occupied territory, including the occupied territories, at the invitation of the Palestinian authorities, and has a clear goal to end the occupation within the framework of a sovereign state of Palestine.”

There is no mention to the occupied territories in the American proposal, or to a sovereign Palestine, or a two-state solution, a prospect that Israel rejects.

Ongoing Discussions and Potential Dangers

Detailed negotiations on the mission authority, including its command and control, started formally on Thursday in New York, and look likely to be lengthy – potentially creating the emergence of a vacuum in Gaza that may empower militant factions.

The United States is suggesting that it lead the force although it will not have many troops deployed on the ground. It has previously effectively taken control of the distribution of relief supplies into Gaza from a recently established logistical hub based in the neighboring country.

Mission Mandate and Governance Function

The draft US resolution outlines the purpose of the security mission as “along with the newly trained and screened law enforcement to help secure frontier zones, stabilise the safety situation in the region by guaranteeing the procedure of disarming the Gaza Strip including the destruction and blocking of rebuilding the militant and hostile facilities as well as the lasting decommissioning of weapons from militant factions”.

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

Arab states including Qatar are also worried that this mandate is overly broad, and if the group is to lay down arms, the faction will solely do so to local counterparts, likely in the local law enforcement, at a time that, from the militant perspective, marks the end of Israeli presence.

They also fear the proposed authority spills into granting the mission a administrative function in the territory, a task that was to be set aside for a Palestinian technocratic committee working in conjunction with a reformed Palestinian Authority.

Humanitarian Aspects and Funding Issues

This “transitional governance administration” in the strip would stay until “the local government has satisfactorily finished its restructuring plan, the approval of which shall be acceptable to the BoP”, the proposal says. It also “underscores the importance” of full relief in the territory, including through the UN, the ICRC, and the Red Crescent.

Nonetheless, it allows for the exclusion of “any organisation determined to have misused such aid”. The phrase permits the board of peace excluding the UN relief agency, the body that the international court of justice has ruled is the legal provider of aid.

Global Diplomatic Initiatives

French officials and Saudi Arabia are currently pressing for a mention to a sovereign Palestine to be included in the resolution. The Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman, is due in the US presidential residence on 18 November, and a Saudi foreign ministry official has stated that a mention to a Palestinian state is a prerequisite.

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

Neither the United Nations nor the 15 strong security council are given a oversight function over the mission, monitoring the implementation of the proposal, a point largely overlooked by the proposed document. No details is outlined about the funding of this security operation, which, according to the US officials, should be mostly covered by Gulf states, with Saudi Arabia taking the lead.

Israeli Demands and Regional Situations

Israeli authorities is requesting written guarantees from the US that it be permitted to emulate the pattern of Lebanon and reserve the right to re-enter Gaza if it considers 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 Monday to review developments on the ceasefire and Witkoff was scheduled to arrive subsequently the that day.

Only the remains of four of the initial hundreds of captives remain unreturned.

Separately, Israeli officials has been suggesting that the territory could still be divided in two with reconstruction work beginning in the Israel occupied areas of the strip. International officials insist that this is no part of the former US administration's proposal.