Defiant Safieddine Says 'Mad U.S. Administration' Won't be Able to 'Harm Resistance'

Hizbullah executive council chief Sayyed Hashem Safieddine stressed Sunday that the U.S. administration will not be able to “harm the resistance,” three days after he was blacklisted by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia in an unprecedented "joint terrorist designation."

“America's malice and siege against our region, countries, homelands and societies prove that it has become a lot weaker than it was in the previous years and decades, and that can be evidenced by the skepticism on (Donald) Trump's continued leadership of the United States of America and the daily attacks on him from most U.S. media outlets and the world's media empires,” a defiant Safieddine said during a Hizbullah ceremony in the South.

“When the U.S. administration was in a good situation, it did not manage to harm the resistance, and therefore this handicapped and mad U.S. administration led by Trump will not be able to harm the resistance and they will not get anything,” the Hizbullah official added.

“What they will get is further screaming in the media and everything they have done will come to an end,” Safieddine emphasized.

He also underscored that “through its culture, the blood of its martyrs and its honorable, sacrificing and cognizant people, the resistance will maintain its firmness and steadfastness and its resolve will be stronger than before.”

“The victories in the upcoming months and years will be better than the victories that were achieved in all the previous days,” Safieddine went on to say.

Safieddine's blacklisting on Friday by Washington and Riyadh came on the eve of Trump's landmark visit to Saudi Arabia.

An Arab Islamic American Summit and an American-Gulf summit in Riyadh also have jihadist terrorism and the influence of Iran – Hizbullah's main regional backer – on the top of their agendas.

"The action against Safieddine is the latest example of the strong partnership between the United States and Saudi Arabia in combating the financing of terrorism," the U.S. State Department said on Friday.

The official Saudi news agency SPA confirmed Safieddine's listing, and alleged he had given his organization advice on carrying out “terrorist acts” and on supplying support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Safieddine is the head of Hizbullah's executive council, which runs the group's political affairs and social and economic programs in Lebanon's Shiite community.

He is a cousin of Hizbullah's overall leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and is spoken of a potential candidate to succeed him.