Mehran Mohagheghi Charged After Driving Into Iran Protest Crowd In Richmond Hill

A man charged after allegedly driving dangerously near a demonstration related to the conflict in Iran in Richmond Hill, north of Toronto, according to York Regional Police, struck a food delivery driver who was not involved and hit another vehicle while fleeing the scene.

Police said officers responded Sunday afternoon to reports of a dangerous driver near Major Mackenzie Drive West and Yonge Street, where a protest was taking place, and the suspect then stopped his car and yelled threats at demonstrators before being arrested.

Al-Jazeera Net

York Regional Police identified the suspect as 39-year-old Mehran Mohagheghi of Richmond Hill, and said the delivery driver was taken to hospital with minor injuries.

The charges he faces include assault with a weapon, dangerous operation, uttering threats and failure to stop after an accident, and authorities said the investigation remains ongoing while they appealed for witnesses and video footage to come forward.

The incident was described as occurring amid heightened tensions at Iranian diaspora demonstrations across North America and Europe since the January protests and crackdown inside Iran, with rallies linked to the conflict drawing confrontations between supporters and opponents of the Islamic Republic.

Iranian state media and US officials framed a dispute over proposals for ending the war, with Foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei saying Tehran’s proposal included ending the war in the region, lifting what he described as the US blockade, releasing frozen Iranian assets, ensuring safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz and restoring regional security.

Baghaei told reporters, “The Islamic Republic has proven that it is a responsible power in the region,” and added, “We are not bullies; we stand against bullies.”

Amnistía Internacional España

The dispute also centered on Iran’s insistence on sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz and Washington’s demands over Tehran’s nuclear program, particularly its stockpile of enriched uranium and enrichment infrastructure.

Baghaei said Iran was not currently focused on decisions related to uranium enrichment, telling reporters, “At the current stage, our focus is on ending the war,” and that later “we will discuss those issues when the time comes.”

US President Donald Trump dismissed Iran’s latest response to a US proposal as “totally unacceptable,” while Iranian state media said Tehran rejected what it described as Washington’s “excessive demands.”

In Washington, D.C., the anonymous arts and activism group Secret Handshake placed three old-school arcade-style games inside the Neoclassical DC War Memorial near the Reflecting Pool in Ash Woods, with a new video game about the Iran war called “Operation Epic Furious: Strait to Hell.”

The group wrote in an email to The Times, “You can order a Diet Coke or bomb Iran in latest anti-Trump protest art,” and described the game as featuring “furious tweet battles against Iranian schoolgirls” and threats to “American freedom.”

A separate protest in Washington involved Guido Reichstadter, a former U.S. Marine and founder of the grassroots coalition Stop AI, who scaled the 168-foot Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge earlier this month and was arrested and charged for trespassing.

Reichstadter said, “We the people, in whose name these murders are being committed, we’ve got the power and the responsibility to nonviolently withdraw our support,” and he described his action as opposition to both the Trump administration’s war on Iran and “the unchecked acceleration of artificial intelligence systems.”

In Tehran, BBC reported that an Iranian activist named Shirin—“not her real name”—said, “I still have anxiety that the war might start again, and that is a terrifying thing,” describing fear triggered by aircraft sounds and the knock on her door.