U.S. State Dept Now Tweeting in Arabic

From the U.S. Department of State's Arabic Media Hub comes news that America's top diplomatic agency will be sharing America's foreign policy goals with the Arab world in their native language. The move comes as DOS hopes to widen its audience amid growing unrest in the Middle East and growing favor for social media outlets such as Twitter.

Tweeting under the account "USAbilAraby," which means "USA in Arabic," the State Department's first entry announced that Washington recognizes the "historic role" of social media in the Arab world. "We want to be in your conversation," it said.

Subsequent posts have reiterated the Obama administration's stance that only Egyptians can decide their future and announced a phone conversation between Vice President Joe Biden and his Egyptian counterpart, Omar Suleiman.

At press time, the account had attracted just over 300 followers.