Members of a European delegation to the Middle East say they were surprised by what they heard from Christians there: support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and criticism of European policies affecting them.

Chredo, a French nongovernmental organization that aims to help Christians in the Middle East, organized the tour. The group is formally known as Coordination of Eastern Christians in Danger.

Chredo assembled a 30-member delegation to visit the Middle East April 16-21, stopping in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. The group included seven parliamentarians from France and three from other European countries, five journalists, three officials from other European NGOs and 12 Chredo members headed by Patrick Karam, a French lawyer of Lebanese origin.

"We came to this region having in mind a clear and specific goal: to inquire about Christians' situation on the ground in these countries and learn about their needs, suffering and the existential risks they are facing," Karam told Al-Monitor. "We came to try to understand how to help these indigenous communities in order to keep them steadfast in the homelands that have been the countries of origin for their ancestors for thousands of years and try to analyze the impact of French policies on these communities, be it positive or negative. This is what we sought to achieve through all of our meetings and our discussions during the entire tour."