The United Arab Emirates has said that it would not participate a UN-mandated international stabilisation force charged with disarming Hamas inside Gaza.
Israel has already ruled out Turkey joining the force, and King Abdullah of Jordan has said that Jordanian troops will not join. Azerbaijan, once suggested as a contributor, did not attend a planning meeting in Turkey last week and said that it would not contribute unless a full ceasefire was in place.
The UAE’s decision was announced by senior envoy Dr Anwar Gargash at a conference in Abu Dhabi.
“The UAE does not yet see a clear framework for the stability force and under such circumstances will not participate, but will support all political efforts towards peace – and remain at the forefront of humanitarian aid.”
Dr Anwar Gargash
The announcement reflects Arab doubts about the terms of a US-drafted resolution already distributed to diplomats at the UN in New York.
The draft places an onus on a US-directed stabilisation force to be the principal means of imposing security in Gaza after Israel has left the territory.
The Arab states would like greater responsibilities to be given to a separate Palestinian civilian police force. International law would also forbid foreign troops from entering occupied Palestine unless there was explicit Palestinian consent otherwise the force would be seen as coercive under UN law, and arguably stabilising an unlawful Israeli occupation.
The US is proposing that it leads the force although it will not have many troops involved on the ground. It has already in effect taken control of the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza from a new civil military coordination centre based in Israel.
The draft US resolution defines the purpose of stabilisation force as “along with the newly trained and vetted police force to help secure border areas, stabilise the security environment in Gaza by ensuring the process of demilitarising the Gaza Strip including the destruction and prevention of rebuilding the military terror and offensive infrastructure as well as the permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups.”
The force, answerable to a “board of peace” chaired by President Donald Trump, and not to the UN, would be required to use “all necessary measures” to achieve its objectives.
Arab states including Qatar are also concerned that this mandate is too expansive, and if Hamas is to disarm the group will only do so to fellow Palestinians probably in the civilian police force at a moment that, from the Hamas perspective, marks the end of occupation.
They also fear the draft mandate spills into giving the stabilisation force a governance role in Gaza, a task that was to be set aside for a Palestinian technocratic committee working in conjunction with a reformed Palestinian Authority.
According to the draft, this “transitional governance administration” in Gaza would remain until “the Palestinian Authority has satisfactorily completed its reform program, the satisfaction of which shall be acceptable to the BoP [board of peace].”
It also “underscores the importance” of full humanitarian aid in Gaza, including through the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the Red Crescent.
However, it opens the door to the exclusion of “any organisation found to have misused such aid.” The phrase leaves open the board of peace excluding UNRWA, the body that the international court of justice has said is the lawful distributor of aid.
Calls For Palestinian State To Be Included In Gaza Peace Resolution
France and Saudi Arabia are already pressing for a reference to a Palestinian state to be included in the resolution.
The Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is due in the White House on November 18, 2025, and Manal Radwan, from Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry, has said a reference to a Palestinian state is a prerequisite.
The PA Chair, Mahmoud Abbas, met the French President, Emmanuel Macron, in Paris on Monday to discuss the PA role.
Neither the UN nor the 15 strong security council are given a supervisory role over the stabilisation force, supervising the implementation of the resolution, a point largely overlooked by the draft text.
Nothing is specified about the funding of this stabilisation mission, which, according to the Americans, should be largely borne by Gulf states, with Saudi Arabia taking the lead.
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