Spain said Friday it is joining calls for U.N. Security Council sanctions against Syria's government, blamed for at least 2,000 deaths since protests started in mid-March.

Spain is backing Britain, France, Germany and Portugal, which are preparing a sanctions resolution against President Bashar Assad's government, Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez said.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati has called for consolidating the nation against the repercussions of the upheaval in Syria.

During the Iftar of al-Makassed Islamic Foundation on Thursday, Miqati said: “Everyone reject bloodshed and support reforms.”

The United States retained Iran and its ally Syria as well as Sudan and Cuba on a list of alleged state sponsors of terrorism Thursday, after blacklisting the countries the previous year.

In an annual report, the State Department said "Iran remained the most active state sponsor of terrorism in 2010," citing "financial, material and logistic support" for militant groups in the Middle East and Central Asia.

Damascus accused Washington and the West on Thursday of seeking to stoke violence in Syria, after U.S. President Barack Obama and European leaders said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must step down.

"It is strange that instead of offering (Damascus) a helping hand to implement its program of reforms, the West and Obama are seeking to stoke more violence in Syria," Reem Haddad, the information ministry's director of external relations, told Agence France Presse.

Switzerland has decided to recall its ambassador to Damascus for consultations in protest at Syria's crackdown on protestors, the foreign ministry said on Thursday.

"The unacceptable behavior of the Syrian security service has led the foreign ministry to recall the ambassador from his post in Damascus for consultations in Bern," the ministry said in a statement.

The FBI is investigating allegations that Syria is intimidating and threatening dissidents in the United States, according to U.S.-based Syrians who say federal agents have questioned them.

Three dissidents who met with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington two weeks ago told Agence France Presse that FBI agents raised concerns about their safety and asked who might be behind the campaign.

Syria's President Bashar Assad told U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday that military operations against protest towns have "stopped," a U.N. spokesman said, amid new reports of killings and mass arrests.

Ban spoke to Assad by telephone ahead of a U.N. Security Council meeting on Syria when, diplomats said, the U.N. human rights chief is expected to call for the international war crimes court to investigate Assad's deadly crackdown.

The Tunisian government has recalled its ambassador in Syria for "consultations", the foreign ministry announced Wednesday.

"Given the dangerous situation in Syria, the Tunisian government has decided to recall its ambassador in Damascus for consultations," the official TAP news agency quoted the ministry as saying.

The Lebanese subsidiary of a Syrian bank sanctioned by the United States denied on Wednesday "unfounded political allegations" that it dealt with North Korea and Iran.

"Since the establishment of our institution, we have never had any operation with either a North Korean or an Iranian entity even before the existing sanctions," the Syrian Lebanese Commercial Bank said.

Russia is continuing to supply weapons to Syria despite international pressure to cease trading, the head of the arms export agency told journalists on Wednesday.

"While no sanctions are announced, while there are no orders or directions from the government, we are obliged to fulfil our contractual obligations, which we are now doing," Rosoboronexport chief Anatoly Isaikin said.