WikiLeaks 'did not approve' its party's meeting with Syria's President Assad

WikiLeaks has revealed it did not "know or approve" of its Australian political party's visit to Syria to meet Bashar al-Assad, amid criticism from both the government and Labor over the trip.

A WikiLeaks party delegation, reportedly including its founder Julian Assange's father, John Shipton, held talks with a number of high-ranking Syrian officials, with a picture released by the Syrian government of a meeting with the president himself.

Before the visit, the party stated it was going as part of its "peace and reconciliation" efforts, as well as warning over the dangers of Western intervention into the bloody three-year Syrian civil war. Shipton said he wanted to show "solidarity"with the Syrian people and told a local TV station that WikiLeaks would be opening an office in Damascus this year.

But WikiLeaks has distanced itself from the trip, saying via Twitter that while peace brokering is a "good idea", it "did not know or approve" of the delegation's visit to Syria.

Julie Bishop, the Australian foreign affairs minister, said Syria was not a place for "political parties to pursue their political ends".

"I find it extraordinarily reckless that an organisation registered as a political party in Australia would seek to insert itself into the conflict in Syria and engage with a leader accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including using chemical weapons against his own people," Bishop told The Australian newspaper.