The United Arab Emirates has gone live with its first web address entirely in Arabic.
The website of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, launched by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has the Arabic equivalent of ‘khalifa.emarat’ as its URL.
It was launched in cooperation with the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of the UAE and the Ministry of Presidential Affairs, following ICANN’s decision to liberate the Internet by ending the exclusive use of Latin characters in addresses and allowing countries around the world to register Internet domains in their mother tongue.
The Ministry of Presidential Affairs says the new domain “reflects UAE’s pride in Arabic language due to its role in the Arab culture”, according to a WAM report.
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