Saudi Arabia executed six Iranian nationals for drug smuggling on Wednesday. Authorities carried out the sentences at a prison in the eastern city of Dammam. Tehran had formally protested the kingdom’s handling of the cases.
Iran’s foreign ministry summoned the Saudi ambassador in Tehran. It lodged what it called a strong protest. The ministry said the executions proceeded without required consular access and notification for the condemned men.
Key Points
- Authorities arrested the six men in 2021 while they allegedly attempted to smuggle hashish into Saudi Arabia.
- Iran says Saudi Arabia denied its diplomats consular access and notification; Riyadh has not publicly addressed the claim.
- Saudi Arabia has executed at least 26 Iranians this year, human rights groups say.
Saudi Arabia executions: Tehran protests, Riyadh stands firm
The diplomatic protest tests a relationship restored only in 2023 after a seven-year rupture. Iran and Saudi Arabia re-established ties under a Chinese-brokered deal that March. However, the rapprochement has remained transactional. It rests on de-escalation in Yemen and oil-market coordination rather than deep trust.
In its statement, the Iranian foreign ministry said the death sentences were carried out “without prior information being provided to our country’s embassy.” If accurate, that would breach the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. The convention requires that detained foreign nationals learn of their right to contact their consulate. Iranian officials have made similar complaints about past executions of their citizens in the kingdom.
Background: executions at a record pace
Saudi Arabia executed at least 338 people in 2024, according to human rights organizations. That was the highest annual total in the kingdom’s modern history. It marked a sharp increase from 172 in 2023. More than a hundred of those put to death were foreign nationals. Many had convictions for non-violent drug offences. The kingdom’s de facto ruler is Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He has paired sweeping social liberalization with an uncompromising approach to capital punishment.
Riyadh maintains that its judicial system meets international standards. It says the death penalty applies only to the most serious crimes after exhaustive legal process. Drug smuggling has long carried a mandatory death sentence under Saudi law. The kingdom does not typically comment on individual cases or consular disputes.
What happens next
Tehran said it would pursue the matter through diplomatic channels. It raised the cases in a meeting between the two countries’ foreign ministers on the sidelines of recent regional talks. Whether the protest escalates beyond rhetoric depends in part on whether more Iranians face imminent execution. Activists track these cases. They believe at least a dozen Iranian nationals remain on death row in Saudi Arabia on drug charges.
Sources: Saudi Ministry of Interior statements via state media; Iranian foreign ministry statement; AFP reporting.
