UAE Refuses to Join Gaza Stabilisation Mission Without Defined Legal Framework

Plans for an multinational security mission mandated by the UN to disarm the militant group in Gaza are encountering growing resistance after the UAE stated it will not take part due to the absence of a clear legal framework.

Growing Global Reservations

Israel have already ruled out Turkey participation, and the Jordanian King Abdullah has stated that his country's forces will not join. The Azerbaijani government, previously considered as a possible participant, did not attend a preparatory session in Turkey and said it would not take part unless a complete ceasefire was in place.

Emirati officials lacks clarity on a defined framework for the stability mission and under such circumstances declines involvement, but will support all diplomatic initiatives towards resolution – and stay at the vanguard of humanitarian aid.

Arab Skepticism and Juridical Concerns

The UAE's announcement, delivered by senior envoy Dr Anwar Gargash at a forum in Abu Dhabi, highlights regional doubts about the terms of a American-proposed document previously distributed to diplomats at the UN in NYC. The draft places an onus on a US-directed stabilisation force 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 local law enforcement agency. International law would also forbid foreign troops from entering contested Palestinian territories unless there was explicit Palestinian consent; without it, the mission could be seen as imposed under international statutes, and arguably reinforcing an unlawful presence.

Local Perspectives and Calls for Clarity

Jamal Nusseibeh of the Palestinian armistice plan commented: “It is essential that the mission be sent not to reinforce the illegal presence, but to uphold global standards and terminate it. The force will work as long as it operates in the whole disputed land, including the West Bank, at the request of the Palestinian authorities, and has a clear objective to end the presence within the framework of a sovereign Palestinian state.”

The draft contains no mention to the occupied territories in the American proposal, or to a Palestinian state, or a peaceful resolution, a prospect that Israeli leadership rejects.

Ongoing Discussions and Possible Risks

In-depth talks on the stabilisation force authority, including its leadership structure, began officially on last week in New York, and appear to be lengthy – potentially creating the development of a power gap in Gaza that may empower Hamas.

The US is proposing that it lead the mission although it will not have many personnel deployed on the terrain. It has already in effect assumed command of the delivery of relief supplies into the territory from a recently established logistical hub based in the neighboring country.

Force Mandate and Governance Function

The proposed American document outlines the aim of the security mission as “together with the newly trained and screened law enforcement to assist in protecting frontier zones, secure the security environment in Gaza by guaranteeing the procedure of disarming the Gaza Strip including the destruction and prevention of rebuilding the militant and offensive infrastructure as well as the permanent decommissioning of arms from militant factions”.

The mission, answerable to a “peace council” chaired by the former US president, and not to the United Nations, would be mandated to use “all necessary measures” to fulfill its objectives.

Regional powers including Qatar are also worried that this authority 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, signifies the end of occupation.

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

Aid Aspects and Funding Questions

This “interim authority” in Gaza would stay until “the local government has satisfactorily completed its reform program, the approval of which shall be acceptable to the BoP”, the draft states. It also “emphasizes the importance” of full relief in the territory, including through the United Nations, the ICRC, and the humanitarian organizations.

Nonetheless, it opens the door the removal of “any organisation found to have misused such aid”. The phrase leaves open the council barring the UN relief agency, the body that the international court of justice has ruled is the legal distributor of aid.

International Political Initiatives

French officials and Saudi Arabia are currently advocating for a mention to a Palestinian state to be added in the document. The Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is due in the White House on 18 November, and Manal Radwan has stated that a mention to a independent Palestine is a requirement.

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

Not the UN nor the 15 strong security council are assigned a supervisory function over the stabilisation force, monitoring the implementation of the proposal, a point mostly ignored by the proposed document. Nothing is outlined about the financing of this stabilisation mission, which, as per the Americans, should be largely borne by Gulf states, with the Kingdom assuming primary responsibility.

Israeli Demands and Regional Developments

Israel is requesting written guarantees from the US that it be permitted to emulate the pattern of Lebanon and retain the authority to return to the territory if it considers demilitarization is not taking place at a level or speed it requires.

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

Just the bodies of a small number of the initial hundreds of Israeli hostages remain not recovered.

Independently, Israeli officials has been proposing that the territory could yet be split in two parts with reconstruction work starting in the Israel occupied parts of the strip. Western diplomats maintain that this is not part of the former US administration's proposal.