The blockade led by Saudi Arabia which has effectively seen Qatar isolated in the Middle East since 2017 appears to be nearing an end after the two countries held talks.

Saudi Arabia backed by Egypt, Bahrain, and United Arab Emirates cut transport and diplomatic linked with Qatar after accusations it was too close to Iran - which has severely impacted its trade and air travel routes.

But the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia -Mohammed bin Salman - has moved to improve relations and potentially end the blockade.

Talks were held last week and it is said that all parties committed to negotiation to find 'Gulf solidarity.'

The Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan said that a positive outcome 'looks in reach.'

"Significant progress has been made in the last few days," he said.

"We hope this progress can lead to a final agreement which looks in reach . . . I am somewhat optimistic that we are close to finalising an agreement between all the nations in the dispute."

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, Qatar’s foreign minister called it an 'an imperative step.'

The positive news coming out of the Middle East caught the eye of Newcastle United supporters who are hoping that improved relations between Saudi Arabia and Qatar may see the end of the dispute regarding TV piracy of beIN Sports which was well documented in the Saudi led takeover attempted of United.

beIN Sports backed by their government took their complaint to the World Trade Organisation, which concluded that the Saudi government had not done enough to punish or deter those pirating live football matches - including from the Premier League.

Of course, it remains to be seen what impact a softening of relations would have on the piracy issue but it is thought those involved with the Newcastle takeover have welcomed the news as Mark Douglas told The Everything is Black and White Podcast.

"The truth is that there are more intelligent and more astute people in terms of geopolitics than me, who will be able to probably tell you whether that has a direct impact.

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"All I know from talking to people around the deal is that they feel that any little thing that can possibly be counted toward this takeover happening helps which is why you see things like the Newcastle Consortium Supporters Group getting a lot of support from the people in and around the deal.

"But you'd be naive to think that geopolitics didn't come into what happened in the summer and yet the basic point is the Premier League didn't believe that there will be enough separation between the state of Saudi Arabia and the PIF.

"But there's clearly been issues around Qatar's beIN Sport and their attitude to the way that the Saudis pirated or allegedly pirated their material, which was as a result of the geopolitical situation which hopefully is going to be resolved.

"So will it immediately break that logjam, which could see the takeover happen? The answer to that is no because the Premier League would if you ask them, tell you it had absolutely nothing to do with with the geopolitical situation.

"But we all know that there was a lot of pressure being applied to the Premier League and to clubs as well, because one of their main broadcast partners was actively trying to drum up opposition to the deal.

"So would that have happened if the Saudis and Qatar were getting on? Well, probably not.

"It's one of these things that if they can come up with a solution to this, and the arbitration if it happens and they win that, then I think there's potential for a resubmitted bid.

This picture taken on December 19, 2015 shows a microphone labelled with bein sports TV logo prior to the European Rugby Champions Cup match beetween Stade Francais Paris and Treviso
This picture taken on December 19, 2015 shows a microphone labelled with bein sports TV logo prior to the European Rugby Champions Cup match beetween Stade Francais Paris and Treviso

"At that point, things like the fact that by that time there might be an agreement between Qatar and Saudi Arabia makes the deal easier.

"What's a crying shame is if this had happened, well, months ago, we possibly wouldn't have had some of the problems that we had originally, and therefore, you maybe wouldn't have had the situation that we've had, which is that 11 months down, we're no closer to the takeover happening."