British National Party leader Nick Griffin visited Syria this week after being invited to take part in a “fact-finding” tour by President Bashar Assad.

Travelling alongside fellow MEPs, Mr Griffin repeatedly criticised the British government’s support for rebels in the civil war, and commented on wider issues affecting the Middle East.

He wrote that Israel wanted to “destroy all resistance to their Eretz (Greater) Israel [by] ethnic cleansing of Palestinian land, to isolate Iran prior to launching another war there, and to reduce the whole Middle East into a howling wilderness of sectarian hatred”.

Mr Griffin had previously declared himself to be a supporter of Israel. In 2009, during his appearance on the BBC’s Question Time programme, he claimed that the BNP were the only political party in the UK which unreservedly backed Israel’s Cast Lead operation in Gaza.

In a series of posts on Twitter Mr Griffin also appeared to praise Hizbollah.

Asked by one Twitter user whether he had joined the Iranian-backed terror group, Mr Griffin responded: “Haven’t joined Hezbollah, though they are doing better job than the Met dealing with ‘British’ jihadi cut-throats in Syria.”

Mr Griffin also attacked English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson, claiming he was “openly out in favour of sending British soldiers to die in Zionist wars in the Middle East”.

He said “Zionist warmongers” were behind the EDL.

Before crossing into Syria from Lebanon, Mr Griffin had visited Beirut.

He said that the Lebanese capital was “less alien than the streets of London”, but that the traffic was equally bad.