BEIRUT: Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awad Asiri said Friday that Saudi officials had no connection to the unflattering cartoon of Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai that was published in a local Saudi newspaper.

Asiri told the National News Agency that “the caricature that was published in Al-Watan Saudi newspaper involving Patriarch Cardinal Beshara Rai does not reflect in any way the opinion of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” adding that Riyadh has only great respect for Rai.

“The caricature was only a personal work, and the author bears responsibility [for it],” Asiri added. Earlier this week, the Al-Watan newspaper published a cartoon of Rai depicting the patriarch as Syrian President Bashar Assad after Rai’s visit to Damascus.