BEIRUT: Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah launched a scathing attack on United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon over the weekend, who ended an official visit to Lebanon Sunday, and confirmed his party would retain its weapons and the path of resistance.

The Hezbollah leader, who spoke Saturday on the occasion of Arbaeen, which marks 40 days after the Ashura anniversary commemorating the killing of Imam Hussein, also urged regional powers to help end the crisis in Syria and called on the Syrian opposition to commence dialogue with Damascus.

“Yesterday, [Friday] I was pleased when I heard Ban saying he was concerned with the special power of Hezbollah. Your worries, Mr. secretary-general, comfort and please us. We want you, the U.S. and Israel to be concerned,” Nasrallah said, in a televised speech addressing gatherers in Baalbek, east Lebanon.

“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 added.

Ban arrived to Beirut Friday, and Sunday opened the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia conference on democracy and transition in the Arab world.

Speaking Friday, Ban told reporters that weapons outside of state control were “not acceptable” and expressed concern over Hezbollah’s growing arsenal. “I am deeply concerned about the military capabilities of Hezbollah and also concerned about the lack of progress in disarmament,” the U.N. chief said.

During Saturday’s speech, Nasrallah voiced his surprise that “after all of the historical achievements of the resistance ... in Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq ... someone comes to question the very usefulness of the resistance. We ask him [Ban] what is the alternative?”

Nasrallah also praised the neutral policy adopted by Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s government regarding unrest in Syria.

“We try in Lebanon to disassociate ourselves give our political situation ... but we are the ones mostly affected by what is happening in Syria,” he said, “whether we like it or not.”

Nasrallah urged the opposition, both inside and outside the country, to launch dialogue with Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government, and “to cooperate with him in carrying out the reforms he announced, which are highly important, so that Syria can rise and resolve its issues.”

“We also call for the return of calmness and stability, setting weapons aside, and resolving issues through dialogue,” he added.

Nasrallah criticized the positions of certain states on Syria and called for “uniting the efforts of Arab states and the Arab League and Islamic states that have an influence in the region, at the forefront of which are Iran and Turkey, to help end the Syrian crisis, and not exacerbate the situation.”

In terms of national dialogue within Lebanon itself, Nasrallah said that he does not reject it, but that there are certain actors using it solely to seek Hezbollah’s disarmament.

“There are those who only want dialogue in order to seek disarmament, but no one can achieve this goal,” he said.

The resistance, alongside the army and the people, is the “only guarantee for Lebanon’s security and preserving its dignity and its sovereignty,” Nasrallah added.

Nasrallah also called on Mikati and his ministers to give priority to people’s social welfare and living standards, a step which, he said, would award Cabinet popular support.

In terms of the ongoing labor wage hike debate in government, Nasrallah said that it was time for the issue to be finalized once and for all.

“It seems as if it is no longer a routine issue of legal discussion,” the Hezbollah chief said. “It appears certain people have started to view the issue in a suspicious way.”