Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. Photo: Anton Nossik.

Hezbollah terror chief Hassan Nassrallah complained Thursday that Israel and the U.S. are working to harm the organization politically. “In the coming year, we will be facing many challenges as a resistance as the Americans and Israelis are working to besiege us with efforts to place Hezbollah on the European Union’s terrorist list, restricting the group’s movement in Latin America and so on,” he said.

Reports earlier in the week suggested that Israel has made the issue a top priority fearing that Hezbollah could otherwise benefit from events in the region.

Speaking in a televised speech marking 40 days since the end of the Muslim Ashura festival, Nasrallah also responded to claims that Hezbollah’s arms arsenal is dwindling, saying, “You are wrong in comparing our strength to the size of our arsenal.”

Addressing the issue of Syria, Nasrallah said that the country is threatened with “schemes of division and partition.”

“We fundamentally and ideologically reject any form of partition or division of any Arab or Islamic country and call for them to preserve their unity,” said Nasrallah.

Nasrallah recognized that events in the region were affecting Lebanon domestically, saying,”We must acknowledge that Lebanon is the country that is affected the most from regional developments, especially those in Syria,” adding “Lebanon is being affected by the war in Syria.”

He also commented on the role of regional powers in funding Syrian rebels attempting to overthrow the government of Bashar al-Assad, a longtime ally of Hezbollah, saying, “three influential countries are financing the rebels in Syria and arming them – Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.”