The Dimension of Secrecy in the Negotiations
There were times when diplomacy was always conducted secretly. This was the principle. Today everything is transparent so you must find some alternatives(Singer 1994) Because the official negotiations were exposed to the public in every phase, concessions had not been forthcoming and the negotiating positions had remained rigid and polarized. Confidentiality and secrecy were therefore viewed as indispensable in the Oslo channel, enabling the parties to elabo- rate new ideas and make tentative concessions 29 Indeed, the back channel was meant to be permanently secret and results concluded in Oslo were to be transferred back to the official negotiations(Aas 1994; Beilin 1994; 1994)