The former boss of the BBC’s World Service has been accused of appearing to defend Hezbollah by minimising the terror group’s presence in Beirut.

Liliane Landor, who was in charge of the corporation’s respected international arm until the end of July, claimed it was wrong to talk about Hezbollah controlling “strongholds” in Beirut or having “embedded” itself in Lebanon.

The group has tens of thousands of fighters under its command and thousands of rockets and missiles under its control and is understood to be militarily stronger than the Lebanese army.

However, Ms Landor described Hezbollah as one of a number of political parties that had become “deeply woven into Lebanon’s political, social, and military fabric”.

She also denied there were any Hezbollah-run areas which were closed to outside observers, in a series of social media posts.

Her statements came despite evidence that Hezbollah had established several weapons manufacturing facilities and infrastructure in Beirut’s Dahiya neighbourhood alone.

Ms Landor’s comments have been denounced as misleading and irresponsible by critics, who say they also expose the procedures which allowed her to become head of the BBC’s World Service to be deeply flawed.

The row over her comments came within days of the publication of a damning report by Danny Cohen, the former BBC director, which claimed the corporation’s “institutionally hostile” coverage of Israel has made Britain unsafe for Jews.