British Foreign Office announced Monday that a veteran Middle East expert has been appointed as the country's ambassador to Iraq and will take up his post on July 1.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said that Edward Chaplin, who is currently director of the Foreign Office's Middle East and North Africa unit, was "one of our most accomplished Arabists, with extensive and distinguished experience of the Middle East."

In addition to the new British Embassy in Baghdad, there will be a consulate-general in Basra, southern Iraq, and a representative office in northern Iraq, Straw added.

Chaplin, 53, served as British ambassador to Amman, Jordan between 2000 and 2002. He had lived in Baghdad as a child for five years in the 1950s when his father worked there for Imperial Chemical Industries PLC. He joined the Foreign Office in 1973.

Chaplin is married with three children.

Source: Xinhua