After being capped at various youth levels he got to make his debut for the Icelandic national team in 2009 against Iran. In 2012, he started getting more frequent callups from new national team manager Lars Lagerbäck. Despite Ari having been playing as a midfielder for his club side he was nonetheless picked in the Iceland squad as a left-back and has been the first-choice left-back in the national team during most of the 2014 World Cup qualifiers. Consequently, Ari felt that he needed to change his position at club level and asked to be bought as a left-back when he was sold in July 2013, so he could play that position at club level to be able to hold his place as the first-choice left-back in the Iceland squad, despite the fact that he has been praised as a central playmaker of high quality.