Norway’s national archives receive Oslo Accords documents found in diplomat’s basement

The National Archives of Norway has taken possession of historical documents from the 1990s Oslo Accords, recovered from the basement of former diplomats Mona Juul and Terje Rød-Larsen, Dagbladet reports.

In early February, Norway’s National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime (Økokrim) seized classified documents linked to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process from the couple’s home in Oslo’s Frogner district. A month later, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Archives retrieved an additional five boxes of material from the same location.

“All documents have now been physically transferred to the National Archives,” said Kjetil Korslien, regional director at the archives. He confirmed that officials are working with the ministry to review, sort, and assess the material before determining what can be made public.

Some of the recovered files were marked “strictly confidential” or “secret.” Under Norwegian law, such security classifications expire after 30 years unless otherwise specified. Korslien noted that the ministry had already downgraded some documents in its initial review but declined to comment on whether any materials were being withheld.

The discovery followed a search of Juul and Rød-Larsen’s home; both face charges of gross corruption and complicity, respectively, though the documents are not part of that investigation. The couple deny wrongdoing.

Rød-Larsen and Juul were key architects of the Oslo Accords, signed in the 1990s between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. Historian Hilde Henriksen Waage first flagged missing documents from the process in 2001–2003 while reviewing the ministry’s archives. For years, she criticized the lack of transparency, while then-Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre (now prime minister) dismissed claims in 2006 and 2012 that Rød-Larsen possessed unreleased files. The ministry only acknowledged gaps in its Oslo Accords records last year.

Støre has since stated he does not recall his involvement in the 2006 denial, which halted further searches, and later admitted that “a more thorough archival assessment could have been made at the time.”