Iran summons Saudi diplomat after 3 nationals executed

Iran has summoned Saudi Arabia's charge d'affaires in Tehran after the Gulf kingdom executed three Iranians convicted of drug trafficking, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported.

The Islamic republic "strongly protested" the killings to the Saudi official, said a senior diplomat at Iran's foreign ministry who called on Saudi to abide by "international conventions" governing relationships between countries.

Riyadh on Sunday executed three Iranians convicted of drug trafficking after they attempted to "smuggle a large amount of hashish by sea" into the kingdom.

They were executed in the eastern port city of Dammam, the interior ministry said.

Iran itself has one of the world's highest execution rates, with only China carrying out more death sentences each year, according to rights group Amnesty International. 

In July, the country was on course to execute more than 1,000 people this year. 

The execution of the Iranians in Saudi comes after a rare video emerged over the weekend showing the public beheading of three unknown men in the Red Sea city of Jeddah. 

The exact number of executions in Saudi Arabia has risen dramatically this year. Ahead of Sunday's execution, Human Rights Watch had reported that 144 people had been beheaded, compared to 87 in 2014. 

The majority of people are executed on charges relating to drugs or murder. 

Under the kingdom's strict Islamic legal code, murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy are all punishable by death.

Relations between Iran and Saudi are at their lowest for years due to disputes over several regional crises as well as the deaths of 464 Iranian pilgrims in a stampede at the annual hajj pilgrimage in Mecca in September.