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Proposals for an international stabilisation force mandated by the UN to demilitarize Hamas in the Gaza Strip are facing growing opposition after the United Arab Emirates announced it would not take part due to the absence of a clear legal structure.

Increasing Global Reservations

Israeli authorities have already excluded Turkey involvement, and Jordan's King Abdullah has stated that his country's troops will not join. Azerbaijan, previously mooted as a possible participant, was absent from a planning session in Istanbul and indicated it would not take part unless a complete truce was in place.

Emirati officials lacks clarity on a clear framework for the stabilisation force and in this situation declines involvement, but backs all political efforts towards resolution – and stay at the forefront of relief efforts.

Regional Skepticism and Juridical Concerns

The Emirati decision, delivered by senior envoy Dr Anwar Gargash at a conference in the UAE capital, highlights regional doubts about the terms of a American-proposed resolution already circulated to delegates at the UN in NYC. The proposal assigns responsibility on a US-directed security mission to be the principal means of imposing order in Gaza after Israel have left the region.

Arab states would like expanded duties to be given to a distinct local law enforcement agency. Global jurisprudence would also forbid foreign troops from deploying into contested Palestine unless there was clear Palestinian consent; without it, the force could be seen as imposed under UN law, and potentially stabilising an illegal Israeli occupation.

Palestinian Viewpoints and Appeals for Definition

Jamal Nusseibeh of the Palestinian armistice plan commented: “It is critical that the force be deployed not to stabilise the unlawful presence, but to enforce international law and end it. The mission will work 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 end the occupation within the context 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 Israeli leadership rejects.

Ongoing Negotiations and Potential Dangers

In-depth talks on the mission authority, including its leadership structure, started officially on Thursday in New York, and look likely to be lengthy – potentially creating the development of a power gap in the strip that may empower Hamas.

The US is proposing that it lead the mission although it will not have many personnel involved on the terrain. It has already in effect taken control of the delivery of relief supplies into the territory from a recently established civil military coordination centre based in the neighboring country.

Force Objectives and Administrative Function

The proposed American document defines the purpose of the security mission as “together with the recently prepared and screened police force to help secure frontier zones, stabilise the security environment in the region by ensuring the process of disarming the territory including the destruction and prevention of rebuilding the military terror and hostile facilities as well as the lasting removal of weapons from militant factions”.

The force, reporting to a “peace council” led by the former US president, and not to the UN, would be required to use “any required actions” to fulfill its goals.

Regional powers including Qatar are also concerned that this mandate is overly broad, and if Hamas is to disarm, the faction will only do so to local counterparts, probably in the civilian police force, at a moment that, from the militant viewpoint, signifies the end of occupation.

They also fear the proposed authority spills into granting the mission a administrative function in the territory, a task that was to be reserved for a local expert panel working in cooperation with a reformed local government.

Humanitarian Aspects and Funding Issues

This “transitional governance administration” in the strip would remain until “the Palestinian Authority has satisfactorily finished its restructuring plan, the satisfaction of which shall be acceptable to the BoP”, the proposal says. It also “underscores the significance” of full humanitarian aid in Gaza, including through the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the Red Crescent.

However, it allows for the removal of “any organisation determined to have improperly used such aid”. The wording permits the council excluding Unrwa, the organization that the international court of justice has said is the legal distributor of assistance.

International Political Initiatives

French officials and Saudi Arabia are already advocating for a mention to a sovereign Palestine to be included in the document. The Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman, is scheduled in the US presidential residence on the specified date, and Manal Radwan has said that a reference to a Palestinian state is a prerequisite.

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

Neither the United Nations nor the 15-member security council are assigned a supervisory function over the stabilisation force, supervising the execution of the proposal, a point mostly ignored by the proposed document. Nothing is outlined about the financing of this security operation, which, as per the Americans, should be largely covered by regional nations, with Saudi Arabia assuming primary responsibility.

Israeli Demands and Regional Situations

Israeli authorities is requesting written guarantees from the United States that it be allowed to follow the pattern of Lebanon and retain the right to return to the territory if it considers disarmament is not taking place at a level or speed it requires.

The request was put to Jared Kushner, the ex-president's son-in-law, and the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff. The advisor was in the Israeli capital on this week to discuss developments on the truce and Witkoff was scheduled to appear later the that day.

Only the bodies of four of the initial hundreds of Israeli hostages are still unreturned.

Independently, Israeli officials has been suggesting that the territory could yet be split in two with reconstruction work beginning in the Israeli-controlled areas of the strip. International officials maintain that this is not part of the former US administration's proposal.