Mona Juul

Mona Juul (born 10 April 1959) is a Norwegian former diplomat and former politician for the Labour Party in Norway who is under investigation for aggravated corruption. The Epstein files revealed that she and her husband the Norwegian politician Terje Rød-Larsen had a close association with Jeffrey Epstein. In 2026 she was placed on administrative leave. Her security clearance was also revoked. Juul resigned as Norway's Ambassador to Jordan and Iraq in February 2026, following discussions with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In an official statement to the Norwegian press, Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide stated how Juul’s contact with Epstein revealed a serious lapse in judgment. He added that the situation made it difficult to restore the trust that the role required.

On February 9, 2026, Juul was charged by the National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime in Norway (Økokrim) on suspicion of aggravated corruption.

Juul hails from Sparbu. She holds a degree in political science and attended the trainee program for aspiring diplomats, focusing on international relations, Norwegian interests, and consular work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Norway). She played a key role facilitating the Oslo Accords in the 1990s. Juul worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Norway) from 1986 to 2025. She was considered one of Norway's most high-profile diplomats for much of her career, prior to the Epstein scandal. When she was appointed Norway's ambassador to Tel Aviv in 2001, she was the youngest female ambassador in the Norwegian Foreign Service, at 41 years old.

Along with her husband Terje Rød-Larsen, Juul played a key role in the Oslo Accords, pivotal agreements on Middle East peace negotiated in the 1990s. The secret negotiations, largely arranged and facilitated by Juul and her husband, led to the signing of the first-ever agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on 13 September 1993 in Washington D.C.

Juul and the rest of the Oslo team of facilitators focused on the conflict between Israel and the PLO, knowing that a peace agreement would have to be created by the adversaries themselves and that a group acting as mediator would be vital in making appropriate arrangements for negotiations.

When Mona Juul and husband Terje Rød-Larsen received a special award from the Peres Center for Peace in Israel on 11 January 1999, they did not notify the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Foreign Ministry reportedly only learned of the 100,000 USD in prize money when the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv reported on the matter.

The Oslo Accords have been heavily criticised and subject to controversy. Experts argue that the Oslo Accords put Norwegian peace diplomacy on the map, but created an unbalanced process that strengthened Israel's security and occupation, while central Palestinian demands such as refugee rights, the status of Jerusalem, and a freeze on settlements were omitted.

Researcher Hilde Henriksen Waage revealed that documents from nine months of the process, from January to September 1993, were missing from the Foreign Ministry's archives.