Svein Reidar Sevje (born 29 October 1948) is a Norwegian diplomat, particularly known for his work in the Middle East.
A few months after the Six Day war Sevje volunteered in the Israeli kibbutz of Mishmar HaEmek, and later joined a Hebrew school.
[3] Sevje has since served as an ambassador in Syria and Lebanon from 2006 to 2008, and was a special envoy to the Middle East.
Sevje was ambassador in Damascus after the Norwegian Embassy was burned by protestors in February 2006, in response to the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy.
[6] In 2011, Sevje was involved in controversy when, in the context of the 2011 terrorist attacks in Norway perpetrated by Anders Behring Breivik, he stated, talking the first person plural, that Norwegians consider Israeli occupation to be the cause of Palestinian terror, coming out of a wish for revenge, with an added religious element; and that a solution cannot be reached between Israel and the Palestinians without engaging the Hamas organization.