Saudi officials have registered their dissatisfaction with an image used by pro-Palestine demonstrators in Algiers comparing Saudi Arabia's king to the US president, according to news media reports.
Supporters of Algeria's Ain Melilla football club staged a pro-Palestine rally in an Algiers stadium on Saturday.
The row erupted as Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Ibrahim al-Sheikh, chairman of the Saudi Shura Council, arrived in Algeria on Monday to discuss bilateral ties with Algerian officials.
Some of the Algerian football fans carried a huge banner portraying a composite image of a face, half of which belonged to King Salman bin Abdulaziz while the other half belonged to Donald Trump , Turkey's Anadolu Agency said in a report.
The banner was accompanied by a caption, reading: "Two faces of the same coin."
The image was intended to express dissatisfaction with Trump's decision earlier this month to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital, which has prompted widespread condemnation and protest across the Arab and Muslim world.
The following day, Sami bin Abdullah al-Saleh, Saudi ambassador to Algeria, voiced the Saudi kingdom's "annoyance" with the image, Anadolu Agency said.
"We will look into the authenticity of this image and take the appropriate response," Saleh said on Twitter.
On Sunday, with Algerian and Saudi activists widely sharing the image on social media, Saudi media outlets were describing the incident as an "insult" to King Salman, the report said.
في مباراة لكرة القدم بالجزائر ، تيفو مسيء لملك السعودية .
— اﻟﺴَﻤَﻮأل (@Smwa2l) December 16, 2017
الصورة الرابعة اهداء للجماهير الجزائرية الغفيرة التي تنابح باسم القدس . pic.twitter.com/QVpj4oHD9J
The Algerian authorities, for their part, have yet to issue a statement on the issue, the Anadolu Agency report said.
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