Norway and Israel-Palestine Peace Agreement

Mr. Holst discussed the secret role of Norway in the peace process which resulted in the signing of a peace agreement on September 13 between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). He described the history of relations between Norway and both the PLO and Israel. Norway has been engaged in peacekeeping in the Middle East since the 1950s. The actual secret talks were the inadvertent result of an academic research study of living conditions in Gaza by Norwegian scholars. After his prepared remarks, the foreign minister took questions from the audience of journalists.