BEIRUT: Hezbollah denied over the weekend that officials from the group had spoken with Time magazine and accused former Prime Minister Saad Hariri of rushing into allegation on the basis of a “fabricated” interview.

“It seems that the story is one of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s fabrications which has gotten us used to its made-up and various crime novels which it prepares … and promotes,” Hezbollah said in a statement released Saturday, referring to a Time magazine interview with one of the suspects indicted in the assassination of statesman Rafik Hariri.

In the interview published Thursday, the Hezbollah suspect, who spoke on condition that his name and location not be revealed, said he was wrongfully accused in the assassination of Hariri and said Lebanese authorities had knowledge of his whereabouts but would not apprehend him because “they can’t.”

“No senior Hezbollah sources met with the Time magazine 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 chief editor Howard Chua-Eoan defended Saturday the interview against Hezbollah’s allegations in an email sent to Future News describing it as true. He also said that the magazine stands by the story.

Nicolas Blanford, who was one of the co-writers of the article, denied that he had conducted the interview with the suspect, stressing that the first paragraph of the story was a quote from an analysis piece he was writing for the magazine.

Media reports surfaced Sunday that Blanford had conducted the interview.

“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 told The Daily Star.

State Prosecutor Saaed Mirza will meet with Blanford Monday morning regarding the story, the writer added.

The news of the interview prompted government action earlier Saturday with Prime Minister Najib Mikati tasking 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 into clarifying the identity of the individual who spoke to Time magazine had been launched.

The Time magazine interview has also stirred a row among rival politicians.

In one of the first reactions to the article, Hariri’s son, head of the Future Movement and former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, accused the government of failing to apprehend the wanted individuals and slammed 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 [for Lebanon], 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?” Hariri asked in a statement, according to his office.

Hariri’s statement prompted a swift response from Hezbollah later in the day, with the resistance group accusing Hariri of having rushed into allegations based on a false interview.

“What Hariri has built upon 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 are a minor sample of what the STL offers and the Future Movement adopts to hide the truth.

The STL is one of the main dividing factors 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, while the March 14 coalition says it is 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 the assassination of five-time Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and has vowed not to cooperate with The Hague-based court which it describes as part of a conspiracy by the United States and Israel to target the resistance group and sow strife in the country.