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Arab League Sponsors Arabic Internet Project | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat- IT teams from various Arab countries are working on a new project that will allow internet users to use Arabic domain names. When completed, internet users will be able to access websites using Arabic letters instead of typing the Arabic web address in English. The project, which is sponsored by the Arab League, is an extension of a similar project currently being conducted by the Gulf Cooperation Council.

In addition to Gulf nations, Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Tunisia are also participating in the project.

All internet users in participating countries will have access to the websites carrying Arabic names. However, internet service providers must enable Arabic domains names on their servers first. Users also need to use web browsers that support Arabic domains names like the Netscape or Mozilla. If using Internet Explorer web users can download software that supports international domain names.

Within the next month, the Saudi Network Information Center at the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology will start accepting registration for Arabic domain names. Other participating countries are also expected to start registering domain names.

Specific rules and regulations have been set up regarding the registration of official and public domains. For further information, please visit: www.arabic-domains.org