UAE open to peacekeeping role in post-war Gaza, conditional upon a two-state solution

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The United Arab Emirates has indicated its willingness to contribute to an international peacekeeping effort in post-war Gaza, according to a senior Emirati official.

In a recent op-ed in the Financial Times, Lana Nusseibeh, special envoy to UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed, affirmed that the UAE would agree to join a “temporary international mission” in Gaza that “responds to the humanitarian crisis, establishes law and order, lays the groundwork for governance and paves the way to reuniting Gaza and the occupied West Bank under a single, legitimate Palestinian Authority.”

“The UAE could consider being part of the stabilization forces alongside Arab and international partners… at the invitation of a reformed Palestinian Authority, or a PA led by an empowered prime minister,” Nusseibeh stated.

The UAE views the establishment of a temporary peacekeeping force as a path toward Palestinian statehood.

“For us, what it would take [to participate in the mission] is US leadership, a reformed PA leadership and a road map toward reuniting Gaza and the West Bank under a single Palestinian government,” Nusseibeh wrote. “We [also] would need to see a clear articulation, a signal or a commitment to Palestinian statehood through negotiations,” she added.

The UAE, which formalized its ties with Israel in 2020 by signing the Abraham Accords peace agreement, also urged Israel to halt the construction of Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria, internationally known as the West Bank.

“Israel, as the occupying power, must also do its part for such an effort to succeed. Gaza cannot recover if it continues to live under a blockade. Neither can it be rebuilt if the legitimate PA is not allowed to take on its responsibilities. No effort will succeed if settlement construction, violence and incitement to violence continue to rise in the occupied West Bank,” Nusseibeh argued.

The Biden administration has attempted to establish a diplomatic path for stabilizing a post-war Gaza through a “reformed” Palestinian Authority.

In May, Washington and several Arab states reportedly discussed the formation of an international peacekeeping force in Gaza as a mechanism to prevent the Hamas terrorist organization from returning to power after the war. At the time, the Emirati FM bin Zayed emphasized that the UAE would not accept a peacekeeping role in Gaza as long as the IDF remained there.

“The UAE stresses that the Israeli prime minister does not have any legal capacity to take this step, and the UAE refuses to be drawn into any plan aimed at providing cover for the Israeli presence in the Gaza Strip,” bin Zayed wrote on 𝕏.

Like most of the international community, the Biden administration has advocated for advancing the two-state arrangement after the war in Gaza.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his current coalition government are firmly opposed to the establishment of an Arab state west of the Jordan River due to the security threat it would pose for Israeli citizens.

The Israeli Knesset recently rejected the notion of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, saying the situation would "pose an existential danger to the State of Israel and its citizens, perpetuate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and destabilize the region."

Since the Oct. 7 Hamas invasion and attack on Israel's southern Gaza border communities, the Israeli public has been more skeptical of the creation of a PA state. The attack, which resulted in the brutal massacre of 1,200, sexual assault and the taking of at least 250 hostages, has intensified security concerns and raised doubts about the feasibility of a two-state solution. Many Israelis fear that granting statehood to the PA could lead to similar attacks from the West Bank, potentially endangering more Israeli citizens.

Since 1937 proposal by the British Peel Commission, the two-state solution has been presented several times by various international actors including Great Britain, the United Nations and the United States. In each case, the Jewish side accepted it while the Arab side rejected it.