Following Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s anti-Israel remarks at the United Nations on Sept. 26, the New York Police Department (NYPD) rescued Iranian Deputy Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast from a mob in which he was confronted with verbal threats but was not assaulted, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The mob met Mehmanparast a few blocks from UN headquarters when the diplomat was separated from other Iranians traveling in a protected motorcade. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said Mehmanparast was “verbally accosted by anti-regime protesters.”

Browne said “some pushing and shoving” took place, but that the department was “not aware of any assault involved, despite one protester’s claim to have punched the diplomat in the stomach.”

Ahmadinejad, speaking to the UN General Assembly that day, cited the continued threat by the “uncivilized Zionists to resort to military action against our great nation.”