It’s almost like they think the U.N. is a joke.

BEIRUT (Reuters) — Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallahdismissed on Saturday a United Nations call for his militant anti-Israel movement to disarm, saying it was determined to maintain a military capacity to defend Lebanon.

“I affirm today, firmly, decisively and with the greatest conviction . . . the choice of armed resistance,” Nasrallah said. “These weapons, along with the Lebanese people and army, are the only guarantee ofLebanon’s protection.”

Mocking a demand by visiting U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that Hezbollah lay down its weapons, Nasrallah said he was happy that Hezbollah’s military prowess was a cause for concern.

“Your concern, Secretary-General, reassures us and pleases us. What matters to us is that you are worried, and that America . . . and Israel are worried with you,” he said in a televised speech marking a Shi’ite holy day.

Hezbollah, which fought a devastating month-long war with Israel in 2006, has rejected a U.N. Security Council resolution that demands that it lay down its military arsenal, as all other Lebanese armed groups did at the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.

Nasrallah, in hiding since 2006 for fear of assassination, says his movement has been re-arming since the 2006 conflict, when it fired hundreds of rockets across the border daily into northern Israel.