Iran’s government has rejected any link to an alleged al-Qaeda plot to derail a passenger train in North America. Canadian authorities say there are no signs that the Iranian state, with which it severed diplomatic relations last year, was behind the attempted attack. Nonetheless Iran’s Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, has dismissed the al-Qaeda allegations as “ridiculous.” “There is no al-Qaeda in Iran! I hope that the Canadian officials will think on, treat people intelligently and show some common sense,” he said. Canadian police have detained two suspects and have linked them to extremist al Qaeda factions based in Iran. As a Shi’ite Muslim theocracy, Iran has little in common with the Sunni-based al Qaeda. However, a U.S. government source says Iran has become home to a little-known network of al Qaeda fixers and “facilitators” based very close to Iran’s borders with both Pakistan and Afghanistan.