CBNNews.com - JERUSALEM, Israel - Over the summer, US Ambassador to Israel Richard Jones will be replaced by James Cunningham, who has been serving the State Department in Hong Kong for the past four years.

According to the U.S. State Department's Web site, Cunningham has broad diplomatic experience.

In the 1990s, he served as chief of staff to NATO's secretary general.

From 2001 to 2005, Cunningham served as deputy US ambassador to the United Nations, where he developed friendships with Israel's UN delegation.

"[James Cunningham] worked with full cooperation and friendship with the Israeli delegation at the UN," said an Israeli Foreign Ministry official.

According to The Jerusalem Post's Herb Keinon, it's a little unusual to replace an ambassador so close to the end of the current administration. Normally, the incoming president chooses his own diplomatic representatives.

Jones has been the U.S. ambassador in Israel since September 2005, when he replaced Dan Kurtzer, who was in Israel for a little more than four years.

Source: The Jerusalem Post