Saudi Arabia executed a record 338 people last year, according to a tally by French news agency AFP, based on official data.
They include six Iranians, whose executions were announced on Wednesday.
The men were executed in the eastern town of Dammam for smuggling hashish into Saudi Arabia, according to the Ministry of Interior, which did not specify the date of the execution.
Tehran responded by summoning the Saudi ambassador to lodge a “strong protest” against the executions, which the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs described as “unacceptable” and “contrary to the rules of international law.”
In 2024, 117 people were executed in Saudi Arabia for drug trafficking, including 85 foreign nationals, according to AFP.
The conservative Gulf monarchy is a major market for captagon, an amphetamine-like drug which, the UN says, is produced in Syria and Lebanon.
