Assad's Man in Amman Blasts 'Enemies of Syria'

The Damascus regime's ambassador to Jordan lashed out on Wednesday at a meeting of supporters of the uprising in his country, describing it as a gathering of "enemies of Syria".

"It is a meeting of Syria's enemies, or friends of Israel," Bahjat Suleiman said in a rare news conference hours before the "Friends of Syria" group meets in Amman to discuss a U.S.-Russian proposal for peace talks.

"Those who want to end the tragedy in Syria need to stop arming and training terrorist gangs in Syria. The war on Syria is unprecedented."

Suleiman insisted that the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad was "defending itself and will continue to fight Israel's tools in the region".

"We understand the pressures that Jordan is facing, but the kingdom should not involve itself in the war on Syria. Amman's security is linked to Damascus's security," he said.

Top diplomats from Britain, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United States are attending the meeting.

The acting head of Syria's opposition National Coalition is to attend the meeting and will be represented by its interim president George Sabra, coalition spokesman Soner Ahmed told Agence France Presse.

The gathering seeks to discuss U.S.-Russian proposal to hold a peace conference dubbed "Geneva 2" to bring together rebels and representatives of Assad's regime.

Suleiman described hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees in Jordan as "terrorists".

"They do not come here for humanitarian reasons. They are here to seek materialistic gains or because they are terrorists or linked to terrorists," he said.

Jordan says it is home to more than 500,000 Syrian refugees.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says more than 90,000 people have been killed since the conflict began in March 2011.