Arab League Secretary General Nabil el Araby warned of fierce campaigns targeting the Arab identity and attempts to melt this identity in other Western ones.

Araby, in his speech at the first Arab forum for upgrading Arabic, called for rallying efforts to stand against attempts to downplay Arabic in return for paying more attention to foreign languages to erase Arab identity.

Arabic is the mother tongue in 22 countries of the MENA region and one of the six official languages in the United Nations.

Araby underlined the importance of attaching more importance to Arabic as a tool of enhancing interaction among the sons of Arab countries.

Upgrading Arabic has become a pressing demand that should be put on the priorities of the joint Arab action, he said.

Head of the Arab Parliament Ahmed Jarwan criticized the decline of teaching Arabic in some schools and universities in Arab countries, warning of the grave consequences of ignoring Arabic.

He urged the Arab governments to adopt an Arab charter to hold on to their mother language against foreign languages.

The forum, the first of its kind, comes as part of celebrations of the World Arabic Language Day that falls on December 18.

December 18 was chosen as the date for the Arabic language as it was the day in 1973 when the General Assembly approved Arabic as an official UN language.

Sources: MENA