GENEVA: Western countries accused Tehran of waging “bloody repression” since elections last year as they challenged Iran to open up to international scrutiny during a UN human rights meeting Monday.

During a public review of Iran’s record in the UN Human Rights Council, Britain, France, the United States, and other western nation expressed deep concern about killings, the scale of arrests and reports of torture during a clampdown on dissent.

“The authorities are waging bloody repression against their own people, who are peacefully claiming their rights,” French ambassador Jean Baptiste Mattei said.

“France recommends that Iran accept the creation of a credible and independent international inquiry mechanism, to shed light on these violations,” he told the council.

The United States and Britain called on Iran to open up to visits by United Nations Investigator on torture as well as other human rights experts, who have failed to get into the country since 2005.

Despite Iran’s stated commitments to uphold fundamental freedoms “grave human rights violations continue to be committed,” said British ambassador Peter Gooderham. Backed by Cuba and Venezuela, Mohammad

Javad Larijani, secretary general of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights, defended Tehran’s legal safeguards and accused foreign nations of supporting “terrorist” groups on its borders.

“With the victory of the Islamic revolution, the situation of human rights has consistently been used as a politcal tool to apply pressure against us and to advance certain ulerior political motives by some specific Western countries,” Larijani told the Council.