Mohammed bin Salman

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called on UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to step in after a £300 million Saudi-backed takeover of Premier League club Newcastle United collapsed, according to reports.

Washington has announced a set of measures against dozens of Saudi officials following a report on murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but said that maintaining good relations with Riyadh is “important to US interests."

As muslim leaders jostle for room on the world stage, Saudi Arabia faces isolation with allegations of state-sponsored murder, atrocities in Yemen and grandiose dreams of a futuristic desert paradise that risk becoming a joke.

The fiancee of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi has sued Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and more than two dozen aides and officials in an American court, accusing them of planning and executing the assassination.

The North East of England may seem an unlikely launchpad for Saudi Arabia’s first major entry into football, but Newcastle offers fertile ground for the Middle Eastern kingdom and its ambitions.

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince has had his relatives arrested for plotting a coup against him and King Salman with the help of “foreign powers, including the Americans,” Western media claim. RT asked Middle East analysts to weigh in.