Diplomat quits Israeli Foreign Ministry

Israel's Foreign Ministry Director-General Dore Gold unexpectedly announced on Thursday that he was resigning his position, citing "personal reasons," about a year and a half after his appointment.

Gold told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- who also serves as foreign minister -- that he wishes to end his term at the Ministry, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.

Gold, who stepped in the office in June 2015, thanked Netanyahu for the appointment.

"I will continue to put myself at his disposal for any task that he will assign me in the future," the statement quoted Gold as saying.

He said during his tenure, Israel "saw a blossoming of foreign relations" and that he felt "a sense of pride in being a part of that."

Gold, a U.S.-born academic known for his hawkish stance on foreign policy issues, has been associated with Netanyahu for 25 years. In the 1990s, during Netanyahu's first term as prime minister, Gold served as Israel's ambassador to the United Nations. He held various other posts under Netanyahu, including a foreign policy adviser. Endit