FRENCH Socialist Party chairman Jean-Christophe Cambadelis warned today that parliamentarian Gerard Bapt faces possible ejection from the party over his approach to Syria.

Mr Bapt went to Damascus as part of a four-strong cross-party delegation for the first talks with Syrian officials since the closure of France’s embassy in 2012.

“I fully condemn this visit. Assad is not an authoritarian dictator, he is a butcher,” Mr Cambadelis said, reflecting French accusations that government forces have committed atrocities during the four-year conflict.

“I have written to Mr Bapt. I will summon him and take sanctions,” the party chairman warned, noting that it would be up to the party’s disciplinary committee to determine whether that would involve a possible ejection from the party.

Three of the parliamentarians in the delegation met President Bashar al-Assad for talks on Wednesday.

However Bapt insisted by text message that he did not personally take part in that meeting.

The trip was not approved by the French parliament’s foreign affairs committee and the Foreign Ministry said it did not support the mission.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls described the visit as an “ethical transgression” today.

While Britain, France and the US remain opposed to contacts with Mr Assad, the Syrian government has called for international co-operation to fight Islamist militancy.

However some government and opposition MPs in France have begun to criticise Paris’s stance, as have former officials and some diplomats in private.