UAE Declines to Join Gazan Security Force Without Defined Juridical Structure

Plans for an multinational stabilisation force authorized by the United Nations to disarm Hamas in the Gaza Strip are encountering growing resistance after the UAE stated it will not take part due to the lack of a well-defined legal structure.

Increasing International Concerns

Israeli authorities have previously ruled out Turkey involvement, and Jordan's King Abdullah has declared that Jordanian forces will not participate. Azerbaijan, previously mooted as a potential contributor, was absent from a planning session in Istanbul and said it would not take part unless a full truce was established.

The UAE does not yet see a clear framework for the stability mission and under such circumstances declines involvement, but backs all diplomatic efforts towards resolution – and remain at the forefront of humanitarian aid.

Regional Doubts and Juridical Concerns

The UAE's announcement, delivered by diplomatic representative Dr Anwar Gargash at a conference in the UAE capital, highlights Arab doubts about the terms of a American-proposed resolution already circulated to diplomats at the UN in NYC. The proposal assigns responsibility on a US-directed security mission to be the primary means of ensuring security in Gaza after Israeli forces have withdrawn from the territory.

Regional governments would like expanded duties to be assigned to a separate Palestinian civilian police force. International law would also prohibit external forces from deploying into occupied Palestine unless there was explicit Palestinian consent; otherwise, the mission could be seen as coercive under UN law, and potentially stabilising an illegal presence.

Palestinian Perspectives and Calls for Clarity

Jamal Nusseibeh of the Palestinian armistice plan commented: “It is critical that the force be sent not to stabilise the unlawful Israeli occupation, but to enforce international law and terminate it. The mission will succeed as long as it enters the whole occupied territory, including the occupied territories, at the request of the Palestinian authorities, and has a defined goal to conclude the occupation within the context of a sovereign state of Palestine.”

The draft contains no mention to the West Bank in the American proposal, or to a Palestinian state, or a peaceful resolution, a prospect that Israel rejects.

Ongoing Discussions and Potential Dangers

In-depth talks on the stabilisation force authority, including its command and control, began officially on Thursday in New York, and appear to be lengthy – potentially creating the emergence of a vacuum in Gaza that may strengthen militant factions.

The US is suggesting that it lead the force although it will not have many personnel involved on the ground. It has already in effect assumed command of the distribution of relief supplies into the territory from a recently established logistical hub based in Israel.

Mission Mandate and Governance Role

The proposed US resolution defines the aim of the security mission as “along with the newly trained and vetted law enforcement to help secure border areas, stabilise the safety situation in the region by guaranteeing the process of demilitarising the Gaza Strip including the destruction and prevention of rebuilding the militant and hostile facilities as well as the lasting removal of weapons from militant factions”.

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

Arab states including Qatar are also concerned that this authority is overly broad, and if Hamas is to disarm, the faction will solely do so to fellow Palestinians, probably in the civilian police force, at a moment that, from the Hamas viewpoint, signifies the end of Israeli presence.

They also worry the draft mandate extends to giving the stabilisation force a administrative function in the territory, a responsibility that was to be reserved for a Palestinian expert panel working in cooperation with a restructured Palestinian Authority.

Aid Considerations and Financial Issues

This “transitional governance administration” in Gaza would remain until “the Palestinian Authority has adequately completed its reform program, the satisfaction of which shall be acceptable to the board of peace”, the proposal states. It also “emphasizes the importance” of unhindered humanitarian aid in the territory, including through the UN, the ICRC, and the Red Crescent.

However, it opens the door the exclusion of “any group found to have improperly used such assistance”. The wording leaves open the council excluding the UN relief agency, the body that the global judicial body has said is the lawful distributor of aid.

International Political Efforts

French officials and Saudi Arabia are already advocating for a mention to a Palestinian state 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 reference to a independent Palestine is a requirement.

The Palestinian Authority leader, Mahmoud Abbas, met the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in the French capital on Monday to review the PA role.

Neither the United Nations nor the 15 strong security council are given a supervisory role over the stabilisation force, supervising the execution of the proposal, a point largely ignored by the proposed document. No details is outlined about the funding of this stabilisation mission, which, as per the US officials, should be mostly borne by Gulf states, with the Kingdom assuming primary responsibility.

Israeli Demands and Regional Developments

Israeli authorities is requesting written guarantees from the US that it be permitted to follow the pattern of the Lebanese situation and reserve the right to re-enter Gaza if it believes demilitarization is not taking place at a scale or speed it demands.

The request was presented to the former US advisor, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff. Kushner was in Jerusalem on this week to review progress on the truce and the envoy was scheduled to arrive subsequently the same day.

Just the bodies of four of the initial hundreds of captives remain unreturned.

Separately, Israeli officials has been proposing that the territory could still be split in two parts with reconstruction work beginning in the Israel occupied areas of the region. Western diplomats maintain that this is no part of the Trump plan.