Manama: Michael Angus O'Neill has been appointed UK's new ambassador to Qatar, the foreign office said.
He will take up his appointment in May and will succeed John Mark Hawkins who will be transferring to another Diplomatic Service appointment, the statement said.
O'Neill joined the FCO in 1994 after a three-year secondment from the Ministry of Defence at the United Kingdom Delegation to Nato.
He has focussed for most of his career on multi-lateral security and economic issues, and latterly on post-conflict stabilisation in Africa and Afghanistan. He has also been speechwriter to two Foreign Secretaries.
O'Neill has served in Washington and at the UK missions to the United Nations in New York and the European Union in Brussels.
Most recently he spent three years as the United Kingdom's Special Representative for Sudan, followed by 18 months as Head of Mission at the UK-led Provincial Reconstruction Team in Helmand, Afghanistan.
"I am excited by the opportunity to help further strengthen the United Kingdom's thriving relations with Qatar, which cover so many areas from cooperation on political issues to expanding bilateral trade and investment and from extensive educational links to a developing cultural alliance," O'Neill said. "On a personal level, I am delighted to return to Doha, having visited several times as the United Kingdom's Special Representative for Sudan."
