Norway’s foreign ministry said Sunday that a prominent ambassador, Mona Jull, will resign due to a “serious failure of judgment” over her relationship with late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, part of a growing scandal across the Nordic country and Europe.
A lawyer representing Mona Jull said she voluntarily resigned because the current situation made it impossible for her to work. (File photo/Reuters)The ministry earlier this week fired Juul from his posts as ambassador to Jordan and Iraq amid an internal investigation into links to Epstein found in a massive set of files released by the US government.
“Jul’s contact with Epstein, a convicted sex offender, showed a serious failure of judgment. The case makes it difficult to rebuild the trust necessary for the role,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Aid said in a statement.
Jull, 66, a former junior government minister, previously represented Norway as ambassador to Israel, Britain and the United Nations.
Israel-Palestine is a key player in the Oslo AccordsIn Britain, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, resigned on Sunday, saying he had taken responsibility for advising Starmer to name Peter Mandelson as US ambassador despite his known links to Epstein.
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A lawyer representing Juul said he voluntarily resigned because the current situation made it impossible for him to carry out his duties.
“Mona Jull will continue to cooperate fully with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ensure that all relevant information on this matter is released,” her lawyer Thomas Skjellbreed said in a statement.
The foreign ministry said it had launched a review of her former grant to the International Peace Institute, a New York think tank headed by Jules’ husband, Terje Roed-Larsen, until 2020.
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Roed-Larsen, 78, who briefly served as a cabinet minister under then-prime minister Thorbjørn Jugland in 1996, has apologized several times for her association with Epstein.
“The National Audit Office has already investigated this several years ago, but Terje Rode-Larsen naturally has no objection to doing it again,” her lawyer John Christian Elden said in a statement.
IPI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Juul and Rode-Larsen rose to prominence as part of a small group of diplomats who facilitated the 1993–1995 Oslo Accords, which at the time were seen as a breakthrough in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, although peace remained elusive.
Several other prominent Norwegians have also had ties to Epstein, including Crown Princess Mette-Marit, who apologized again in a statement issued from the palace on Friday, specifically to the king and queen.
