BEIRUT: Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah hit back Saturday at U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon’s remarks of the resistance group’s growing military capability, saying the group would not relinquish its weapons, and urged Iran, Turkey and the Arab League to jointly work to help end the Syria crisis.

“Yesterday [Friday] I was pleased when I heard Ban saying he was concerned of the special [military capability] that Hezbollah possesses. Your worries, Mr. secretary-general, comfort us and please us,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech in Baalbeck, east Lebanon.

“We want you, the U.S. and Israel to be concerned,” Nasrallah added.

Nasrallah’s speech came on the occasion of Arbaeen that marks 40 days after the Ashura anniversary commemorating the killing of Imam Hussein, one of Shiite Islam's most revered figures.

“Our concern is that our people are comforted that there is a resistance in Lebanon and we will not allow a new occupation or another violation,” Nasrallah told thousands of supporters in the city, which he described as the “cradle of the resistance.”

During a news conference Friday night, Ban, on an official visit to Lebanon, voiced concern over Hezbollah’s growing military power, saying that any weapons outside the jurisdiction of the state was unacceptable.

In an apparent response to Ban’s calling on the resistance group to disarm, Nasrallah said his party would not relinquish its weapons.

Hezbollah officials voiced disapproval prior to Ban’s visit to Lebanon, saying the U.N chief was unwelcome.

Ban is on his third official visit to Lebanon which began Friday. The U.N. chief held high-level talks with President Michel Sleiman and Prime Minister Najib Mikati on the first day of his trip. On Saturday, Ban visited the headquarters of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon in the south. The U.N. chief will meet Prime Minister Najib Mikati later Saturday and will give the opening speech for a conference organized by ESCWA Sunday.

Turning to Syria, Nasrallah cautioned against the behavior of some countries in dealing with the 10-month-long unrest in Lebanon’s neighbor and urged regional powers, primarily Turkey and Iran, to join efforts to resolve the crisis.

“If you were honest in your warning and want to prevent a war in Syria, you need to start with yourselves and you have to re-evaluate your political and media behavior and combine efforts by Arab States, the Arab League, leading Muslim countries, primarily the Islamic Republic of Iran and Turkey, to help end the crisis in Syria,” Nasrallah said.

Turkey, which formerly enjoyed close ties with the government of President Bashar Assad, has become one of Assad’s staunchest critics. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urged the Syrian leader to step down and has called on the international community to stop the bloodshed in its southern neighbor.

Nasrallah, ally of both Tehran and Damascus, also urged Syrian opposition groups to answer the call for dialogue by Assad and said they should lay down their arms.

"We ask the Syrian opposition inside and outside Syria to accept President Assad’s call for dialogue and cooperate to implement the reform he has called for,” the Hezbollah chief said.

“We call for the restoration of calm and stability and the laying down of weapons and that the problems be resolved via dialogue,” he added.

On Jan. 10, in Assad’s fourth speech since unrest gripped Syria early last year, the Syrian leader said his government was willing to launch national dialogue with other political parties as a means to end the crisis.

Damascus and its allies in Lebanon have maintained that “armed groups” are responsible for the violence in Syria, describing the uprising as part of a larger plot aimed at Assad’s rule.

The U.N. estimates that over 5,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the crackdown on anti-government protests since unrest began in March 2011. Damascus denies targeting civilians and says that over 2,000 members of its security and army personnel have been killed so far.

The leader of Hezbollah, which dominates the Cabinet of Prime Minister Najib Mikati, also praised the neutral policy adopted by the Lebanese government toward unrest in Syria, saying Lebanon was the country most affected by events in its neighbor.

“We try in Lebanon to disassociate ourselves given our political situation ... but we are the ones mostly affected by what is happening in Syria,” he said.

Domestically, Nasrallah said his group should not be held responsible for security breaches in the country, saying the Lebanese Army and the state were tasked with providing internal security.

“I reaffirm that the responsibility to preserve internal security ... is the duty of the state and the army ... not any side, either the resistance or any other political party,” he said. “We reject anyone who places this responsibility on us,” Nasrallah added.

“We renew our calls for the state and the army to be responsible for security. We do not accept any excuses for them not to handle their responsibilities,” he said.