Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the chairman of Iran’s powerful Expediency Council, made the astonishing claim when speaking to a visiting Italian dignitary

Nations across the globe will soon be engulfed by a 'third world war' sparked by terrorists, a senior Iranian official has warned.

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the chairman of Iran’s powerful Expediency Council, made the claim during a meeting with a senior Italian politician this week.

But despite stating the war will be triggered by terrorists - he claimed blame will lie solely with the U.S. and NATO for their invasion of Afghanistan.

According to Iran's Far News Agency, Rafsanjani told Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni: 'The threat of the outbreak of the third world war by the terrorists is serious.

'The US and the NATO had invaded Afghanistan to uproot terrorism and narcotics, but we saw that terrorism expanded in the form of the ISIL, Boko Haram and Al-Nusra Front to remote parts of the world from Al-Qaeda and Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan.'

He later called on Western nations to stop their 'support' of terrorist groups in the region.

Although it was unclear what groups he referred to, the U.S. and Iran have aligned themselves with opposing ethnic groups in several conflicts throughout the Middle East.

Currently Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi insurgents are fighting their exiled government in the face of Saudi Arabian backed coalition. The Saudis remain a key Middle East ally of the U.S.

Despite the U.S.'s historic breakthrough in nuclear negotiations with Iran last month, the two countries' diplomatic relations have yet to cool.

While they have found themselves on the same side in the fight against ISIS throughout Syria and Iraq, the countries remain at loggerheads over many issues.

Iran said today the United States should seize the opportunity created by a nuclear deal reached between the country and six major powers to change what it called a foreign policy of 'threats of coercion'.

'The use of threats of coercion as a foreign policy will give no other result than damaging America's reputation and wasting American resources,' state news agency IRNA quoted Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as saying in reaction to remarks by U.S. President Barack Obama yesterday.

Iran and the six major powers reached a deal on July 14 after over 18 months of negotiations aimed at curbing the Islamic republic's nuclear programme in return for lifting economic sanctions imposed on Tehran.

Defending the deal with Iran against criticism from political opponents and Israel, Obama said: 'Alternatives to military actions will have been exhausted once we reject a hard-won diplomatic solution that the world almost unanimously supports.'

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (left) has responded to U.S. President Barack Obama's remarks yesterday by saying the U.S. should stop using 'threats of coercion as a foreign policy'

U.S. Congress has until September 17 to vote on the deal. If it passes and survives a presidential veto, a resolution rejecting it would cripple the agreement by eliminating Obama's ability to waive many sanctions.

Obama said blocking the deal would accelerate Tehran's path to a nuclear bomb and severely damage America's credibility.

Iran has always denied accusations its nuclear programme went beyond energy projects and medical research and could yield nuclear weapons.

'It would be best to use this historic opportunity to win the valuable trust of the Iranian nation,' Zarif said.