It seems like Rupert Murdoch wants to extend his influence in the Arab world.

Robert Thomson, the editor of The Times of London (which is owned by Murdoch), announced yesterday that for the first time in its history, The Times is to be published in the Middle East.

The paper says it “plans to publish a special supplemental edition on the Middle East, to be published each day in the region.”

“The words ‘Middle East’ connote conflict and chaos, and so the region’s economic potential is ignored by companies and countries which would benefit from closer scrutiny of the region and from a recognition that each country in the area has its own past and a future of possibility, not of pessimism,” said Thompson.

“A serious newspaper needs to provide coverage not just of the tragedy of Iraq or the nuclear ambitions of Iran, but of the great social experiment that is Jordan and of the extraordinary growth in the United Arab Emirates. There needs to be better reporting of the capital flows from Saudi Arabia and, for example, of the increasingly complex links between Egypt and China, whose influence on the region may be self-described as commercial, but is clearly and inherently political.”