by INGRID CHAHINE
Norway, the benevolent broker of “peace”, whose diplomats engineered the Oslo Accords, are finding it harder to maintain their polished international reputation. Like many Western elites, key Norwegian figures now stand exposed in the released Jeffrey Epstein documents.
Mona Juul, a senior Norwegian diplomat and key architect of the Oslo process that legitimized the Israeli occupation of Palestine, was temporarily suspended on Monday. The precise timeframe of the suspension remains unclear, as does Juul’s current standing within Norway’s foreign service. What is clear, however, is that Juul and her husband Terje Rød-Larsen, long shielded by their status as elder statespeople of “peace diplomacy”, surfaced in the Epstein files as participants in elite networks tied to trafficking of minors, blackmail and Israeli espionage.
Following Oslo, Terje Rød-Larsen served as the United Nations’ Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO). His tenure set a pattern of prioritizing zionists’ interests, later replicated by his successors who frequently clashed with the UN’s own human rights bodies.
In 2005, Rød-Larsen became president of the International Peace Institute (IPI). According to the institute’s mission and history, he expanded its regional focus to the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, positioning IPI as a policy support hub for UN reform and global peace and security initiatives. It was in this role that his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein deepened.
Investigations by the Norwegian daily business newspaper Dagens Næringsliv revealed that Epstein provided financial support to IPI-linked projects, including funding a special performance of a Tony Award–winning play titled ‘Oslo’ for the UN community, focusing on the secret back-channel efforts of the diplomatic couple to facilitate the Oslo accords. Additional evidence shows that Rød-Larsen personally owed Epstein approximately US$130,000.
Ultimately, Rød-Larsen was forced to resign from his position in IPI as his financial dealings with Epstein surfaced.
Juul and Rød-Larsen were not alone. Thorbjørn Jagland, former Nobel Committee Chair, is also implicated. Jagland initially denied ever meeting Epstein. Subsequent reporting by DN, however, revealed that Jagland hosted Epstein and Bill Gates at his residence in Strasbourg in 2013. Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway met Epstein several times between 2011 and 2013. Former prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik of Norway met Epstein at a dinner party in 2013, but declined to pursue funding from Epstein having found out about Epstein’s past in a Google search.
Documents and emails released by the US Department of Justice validate the depth of these connections: Juul and Rød-Larsen maintained close relations with Epstein, took personal loans from him, and reportedly had their children named as beneficiaries in Epstein’s will for US$10 million following his death in 2019.
Correspondence involving Epstein’s assistant Lesley Groff, pilot Larry Visoski, and others, confirm meetings, invitations, and travels to Epstein’s island, with explicit references to Mona Juul, the CV of one of her children, and ‘Oslo’, the high-profile Broadway play.
Rød-Larsen’s most recent successor at UNSCO, Nickolay Mladenov, has now agreed to serve on US President Donald Trump’s so-called ‘Board of Peace’ as the High Representative for Gaza – a more recent example of “peace democracy”.
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