Umno lawmaker Nawawi Ahmad has apologised to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong over his remarks regarding 'Malaysian Official 1' (MO1), which caused a stir.

In his statement, Nawawi expressed regret over the matter and promised to be more careful when making statements on social media in the future.

"So with humility and full responsibility, I convey a million apologies to Your Majesty if this issue which became viral had caused hurt to Your Majesty," he said today.

“I do not intend to link Your Majesty to this issue, but it had been made viral by certain parties with a different understanding from what I was trying to say,” Nawawi added.

The Langkawi MP also extended his apologies to the Kedah royal household, and to all Malaysians.

“I hope this issue would be put to rest here,” he said.

MO1 is an individual alleged by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to have received at least US$731 million out of US$3.5 billion that was supposedly misappropriated from 1MDB.

The department said it is barred by court rules from naming the official in its civil forfeiture proceedings, but this has only fuelled speculation about MO1's true identity.

However, Nawawi supposedly claimed in an Aug 16 Facebook post that MO1 is none other than the Agong, since His Majesty is the country's head of state.

The Facebook post was edited to remove the reference to the Agong four hours later, but not before drawing criticism.

The Majlis Kerabat Diraja Kedah also ticked off Nawawi, saying that he should not have dragged the royal institution into the matter.

Nawawi had previously claimed that he was misunderstood and he was not referring to the DOJ's court filings.