Dr. Marandi made the remarks in a letter to Editor-in-Chief of the Lancet Medical Journal Professor Richard Horton after the scientific magazine had published an article titled “Offline: Mahsa Amini—never forget”.

"Respectfully, following the letter dated November 14, 2022, and referring to your Lancet magazine article regarding Miss. Mahsa Amini, we are very disappointed to see the republishing of completely false information about the Islamic Republic of Iran, especially regarding doctors and the health service delivery system, in a magazine that is known as a scientific magazine," Dr. Marandi wrote.

He stressed that the article lacks any "scientific documentation".

"Once again I wish you, who claim to include real and scientific content in your magazine, would address the issue of the cruel sanctions imposed by the United States and the West against the children, women, and men of Iran, and what serious damage it has caused to the health of the people," the health official added.

Iran has repeatedly denounced the sanctions as an act of “economic war”, “economic terrorism”, and “medical terrorism”.

Although Washington and its Western allies claim that humanitarian goods are exempted from sanctions, tens of thousands of patients in Iran have over the years died or developed critical ailments due to the non-availability of essential drugs over the years. 

Iranian officials have rejected Washington's claim that it has exempted humanitarian trade from sanctions against Tehran.

"I wish you had for once exposed the enormous support of Western countries and the US for Saddam Hussein, who committed unique and historical crimes with chemical weapons against our people, including Iranian and Iraqi Kurds residing relatively close to where Mahsa Amini lived. All carried out amidst the deadly silence of western dominated scientific and international bodies," Dr. Marandi continued.

The former health minister believes that there are "material and political interests" in writing such false reports, which question the scientific value of the Lancet Medical Journal.

"As I wrote to you in the previous letter, if the accusations mentioned in that article were supposed to be based on science, they would at least been quoted from sources that are not so utterly hostile to our people and country," he noted.

"The Academy of Medical Sciences of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which consists of educated scientists and leading professors of the country's medical sciences universities, considers the contents of the article to be completely false and based on the material and political interests of those involved in its publication," he said.

"The contents of the article are an insult to the community of health care and services providers, especially doctors, who have shown their unparalleled services to the people during the war imposed by Saddam against Iran, as well as during the cruel sanctions of the United States and Western countries that remained in place during the COVID-19 pandemic," he added.

He stressed that the Academy of Medical Sciences expects a correction from the magazine regarding the falsehoods in the article as swiftly as possible.

Protests erupted in several cities across Iran over the death of Amini who fainted at a police station in mid-September 2022 and days later was pronounced dead at a hospital. The demonstrations soon turned violent.

Iranian officials blame Western countries for orchestrating the riots to destabilize the country.

The unrest has claimed the lives of dozens of people and security forces, while also allowing acts of terror and sabotage across the country. Iran's Interior Ministry has confirmed the enemy waged a hybrid war against the country to weaken national solidarity and hinder the country's progress, stressing that some 200 people lost their lives in the riots sparked by separatist and terrorist groups.