Saudi Arabia says it didn't ban 'Pokémon Go'

Officials in Saudi Arabia are denying reports they banned Pokémon Go in the country.

The country's Council of Senior Religious Scholars, which issued a fatwa against the Pokémon card game in 2001, took to Twitter Thursday to deny reports they recently renewed the old ban in response to the Pokémon Go mobile game.

On Twitter, the council -- Saudi Arabia's top religious establishment -- said the new game requires a new opinion and said previous media reports that the game had been banned were incorrect.

A spokesperson for Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Culture and Information also denied the reports in a statement to Reuters. "The Council of Senior Religious Scholars denied that it issued a new fatwa about the Pokemon game, and the media reports of that are not accurate," Abdulmohsen Alyas, undersecretary for international communication and media, said Thursday.

Earlier in the week, the Council of Senior Religious Scholars' reportedly republished its original fatwa from 2001 about the Pokémon card game. At the time of the original ruling, the organization cited several "religious violations," including references to gambling and evolution.

Nintendo's mobile game isn't officially available in Saudi Arabia yet, though many people in countries where the game hasn't been released yet have downloaded the Android version of the app outside of the main Google Play Store. The game -- a seemingly unstoppable viral hit -- has also been reported as the cause of several accidents.