BEIRUT: A TIME interview with one of the four Hezbollah members indicted by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri prompted an exchange of accusations between Hezbollah and former Prime Minister Saad Hariri over the weekend.

In one of the first reactions to the article, Hariri accused the government of failing to apprehend the wanted individuals and slammed Prime Minister Mikati’s government as “two-faced and two-tongued,” and as having succumbed to the will of Hezbollah, which has said that it will not hand over the four men.

“Does Prime Minister Najib Mikati, with his team of ministers, in principle responsible for Lebanon’s adherence to the Special Tribunal, want to listen to this interview and the announcement that came from the mouth of the accused about [authorities] not apprehending him despite knowledge of his whereabouts?” asked Hariri in a statement.
“It seems none of them wants to hear, read, see or even speak, and that the policy of closing ears and burying heads in the sand toward everything that relates to Hezbollah and its domination of the government’s decision … is the one that prevails,” Hariri added.
Hezbollah denied that officials from the group had spoken with TIME magazine and accused Hariri of rushing to make allegations on the basis of a “fabricated” interview.

“The interview is another one of the Special Tribunal’s fabrications,” Hezbollah said in a statement released Saturday. “The court has made us familiar with the various made-up crime novels it prepares … and promotes.”
In the interview published Thursday on TIME’s website, the Hezbollah suspect, who spoke on condition that his name and location not be revealed, said he was wrongfully accused in the assassination and that Lebanese authorities had knowledge of his whereabouts but would not apprehend him because “they can’t.”

“No senior Hezbollah sources met with the TIME reporter, individually or in the presence of someone else. Consequently, the said report is not valid at all and the alleged interview did not take place,” the Hezbollah statement said.

TIME magazine’s editor-in-chief Howard Chua-Eoan defended the interview Saturday against Hezbollah’s allegations in an email sent to Future News TV and said TIME stands by the story.
The STL refused to comment on the interview when contacted by The Daily Star.
Nicolas Blandford, who is one of the co-writers of the TIME article, denied that he had conducted the interview with the suspect, stressing that his contribution was the first paragraph of the story, which was taken from an article he was writing for the magazine.

“During the course of [writing a piece on the indictment] the editors of TIME magazine got in touch with me and said they had an interview with one of the suspects. I was more than a little surprised to hear that so they sent me the transcript … and [I] tacked on the quotes from [the indictment piece],” Blandford told The Daily Star Sunday.
Media reports surfaced Sunday that Blandford had conducted the interview. An-Nahar newspaper reported that the Beirut-based journalist interviewed the suspect Tuesday or Wednesday.
“I know everyone jumped to the conclusion that I conducted the interview strictly because I have been here for a long time and I have good relations with Hezbollah but it wasn’t me,” he said

State Prosecutor Saeed Mirza will summon Blandford for investigations over the article Monday morning.
Blandford, TIME’s correspondent in Lebanon, said: “The decision to publish the interview was taken by the editors in New York at TIME magazine so it has nothing to do with me. I guess they concluded that the interview was genuine and decided to run it. Beyond that I can’t really comment; I don’t know the circumstances surrounding the interview.”The news of the interview prompted government action earlier Saturday, with Prime Minister Najib Mikati asking Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi to look into the matter.

Speaking to The Daily Star Saturday, Qortbawi said authorities had denied any knowledge of the whereabouts of any of the four suspects wanted by the STL and that a probe to clarify the identity of the individual who spoke to TIME magazine had been launched.
Hariri’s statement drew a swift response from Hezbollah later in the day, with the group accusing him of having rushed into allegations based on a fake interview.

“What Hariri has built on is lies and allegations, and his conclusions and political analysis is false because what it is based on is false,” Hezbollah said, adding that such comments were only a sample of what the STL offers and the Future Movement adopts to hide the truth.
The STL is one of the main divisive issues between Lebanon’s major political factions, with the Hezbollah-led March 8 alliance asking the government to end its cooperation and funding of the STL, and the March 14 coalition describing the court as the only means to achieve justice.

Last month, the STL indicted four Hezbollah members of being involved in the assassination and gave the Lebanese government 30 working days to apprehend the suspects, which Lebanon failed to do.
Hezbollah denies involvement in Hariri’s killing and has vowed not to cooperate with The Hague-based court which it describes as part of a conspiracy by the U.S. and Israel to target the resistance group.