Canadian police have charged two men with plotting to derail a Toronto-area passenger train in an operation they say was backed by al-Qaeda elements in Iran.
US officials said the attack would have targeted a rail line between New York and Toronto, a route that travels along the Hudson Valley and enters Canada near Niagara Falls.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said it had arrested Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, of Montreal, and Raed Jaser, 35, of Toronto in connection with the plot.
Neither suspect is a Canadian citizen, and police did not reveal their nationalities.
Two sources following the investigation said one was Tunisian.
A bail hearing for the two men is due to take place in Toronto today.
Authorities said the plot was not linked to last week's Boston Marathon bombings, which killed three people and injured nearly 200.
Canada's intelligence agency has long expressed concern about the possibility that disgruntled and radicalised Canadians could attack targets at home and abroad.
Mr Esseghaier has been a doctoral student at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique near Montreal since 2010 and was about midway through his degree, the school said.
His PhD studies are in the field of energy and materials sciences.
Police said the suspects had received "support from al-Qaeda elements located in Iran".
However, they added that there was no sign that the conspiracy, which police described as the first known al Qaeda-backed plot on Canadian soil, had been sponsored by the Iranian state.
Canada last year severed diplomatic ties over what it said was Iran's support for terrorist groups, as well as its nuclear programme and its hostility towards Israel.
An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said al-Qaeda's beliefs were in no way consistent with the Islamic Republic, and that Iran opposed "any kind of violent action that endangers lives".
"In recent years, Canada's radical government has put in practice a project to harass Iran and it is clear that it has pursued these hostile actions," the spokesman added.
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