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The United Arab Emirates has signaled its willingness to send forces to a multinational “stabilization” mission for Gaza following the war between Israel and Hamas, becoming the first country to say it could deploy boots on the ground in the strip.
The Gulf state said it could deploy its forces if the U.S. provides leadership and supports moves toward a Palestinian state. The comments by Lana Nusseibeh, the UAE foreign ministry’s special envoy, come as Arab states and the West struggle to come up with a viable post-war plan for Gaza.
Nusseibeh told the Financial Times that Abu Dhabi had discussed the plans with the US as a step to fill the vacuum in besieged Gaza and address its massive humanitarian and reconstruction needs.
She said the UAE would only attend at the invitation of the Palestinian Authority, the Western-backed body that administers limited parts of the occupied West Bank.
“The UAE could consider joining a stabilization force alongside Arab and international partners.” . . at the invitation of a reformed Palestinian Authority or a Palestinian Authority led by a plenipotentiary prime minister,” Nusseibeh said. “The United States should have the leadership in this to succeed.”
Nusseibeh said Abu Dhabi “conducted and continued ‘day-after’ talks with all concerned actors in the region”.
The Gulf state normalized relations with Israel in 2020 and has maintained communications with the Jewish state since an October 7 attack by Hamas sparked the war and Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza.
The details of the mission, including whether it was a military or police force, were still being debated.
The US is encouraging Arab states to join a multinational force for Gaza as part of its post-war planning, but is not expected to deploy US troops.
Diplomats have previously said that Egypt, which shares a border with Gaza, and Morocco, which normalized relations with Israel in 2020, were also considering the plan.
In May, the Arab League called for the deployment of UN peacekeepers in Gaza and the West Bank until a Palestinian state is established.
But the notion was met with skepticism, as the deployment of any force would face enormous obstacles and depend on Israel’s actions.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected any steps towards a Palestinian state. He refuses to accept any role for the Palestinian Authority in Gaza and insists that Israel will retain overall security control there.
He also rejected demands by Hamas that Israel withdraw its troops from Gaza in talks brokered by the US, Qatar and Egypt to end the conflict and secure the release of Israeli hostages.
Other Arab officials have expressed concern about being seen as entering Gaza on the back of Israeli tanks and at the risk of being drawn into the fight against the insurgency there.
But Nusseibeh said the alternative to a stabilization mission is “to do more of the same, and that will only lead to more violence, radicalism and suffering for both Palestinians and Israelis.”
The UAE is considered one of the best-trained Arab militaries and its forces have participated in at least six US-led coalitions since the 1990s, including Afghanistan, Bosnia and Kosovo, Somalia and the fight against ISIS. It has also deployed its troops to Yemen’s civil war as part of a Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
It is one of the few states with a presence on the ground in Gaza, operating a field hospital in the strip and delivering aid.
“Plan [for Gaza] it must be what we consider necessary: a humanitarian component to help the Palestinian people in Gaza recover from the terrible destruction; [and] security component,” Nusseibeh said. “And a political component that can facilitate a sustainable resolution of the conflict.”
Arab states have insisted that to ensure a sustainable solution to the crisis, the US must press Israel to take irreversible steps towards a two-state solution to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
But they were also frustrated by the lack of reforms of the weak Palestinian Authority, which since October 7 has been led by octogenarian President Mahmoud Abbas for nearly two decades.
“For us, for what it would cost. [to participate in the mission] is US leadership, reformed Palestinian Authority leadership, and a plan to reunify Gaza and the West Bank under a single Palestinian government,” Nusseibeh said. “We [also] it will need to see a clear articulation, signal or commitment to Palestinian statehood through negotiations.