Tehran rejects Jordan's claims of Iranian 'terror plot'

Tehran has rebutted allegations that a man allegedly linked to the country's intelligence services planned a series of bomb attacks in Jordan.

Ramazan Sharif, spokesperson for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, dismissed media reports that a man linked to Iran was arrested by Jordanian state security with a huge amount of explosives.

Quds Force is reponsible for the Republican Guard's overseas operations, including in Syria and Iraq, and headed by ellusive commander Qasem Soleimani.

On Monday, pro-government Jordanian newspaper, al-Rai, claimed the man was part of an Iranian-allied overseas militia called Beit al-Maqdis, which is unrelated to the Sinai-based Islamic State group affiliate, and planned "terror attacks" in the Hashemite Kingdom.

The newspaper claimed that security forces swooped on the home of the Iraqi-Norwegian national in Jerash, north Jordan and found 45 kilograms of high explosives.

Sharif has described the reports as "baseless" and said that the allegations are part of "phobia and propaganda against Iran".

The Jordanian source said that the discovery of explosives was Jordan's "biggest haul" in a decade and that the man planned to smuggle some of the munitions into the West Bank.

Jordan-Iran relations continue to be strained despite a common enemy in the Iraq and Syria-based extremist group, the Islamic State.

Amman is part of an international coalition targeting its positions from the air, while Iran and Tehran-backed militias are fighting its forces on the ground in Iraq and Syria.

However, Iran's continued support of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and his regime has caused friction with Sunni-majority monarchies of Jordan and the Gulf region.

Jordan is hosting US-run training programmes for Syrian rebel groups who are trying to overthrow Tehran's key Middle East ally.

Jordan's state security court held its first hearing in the case Monday and issued a gag order on the press about the terror suspect.

Jordan has been on high alert for possible terror attacks on its soil, although it was believed that the threat would come from Syrian-based extremist groups such as IS and al-Qaeda.