As the Turkish offensive in Syria by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday continues, Paris has announced this Saturday suspending its arms exports to Turkey.

"France has decided to suspend any plans to export to Turkey war materials likely to be used as part of the offensive in Turkey," said Saturday the French Ministry of Armed and Foreign Affairs. "This decision is of immediate effect," said the two ministries in a statement. "The EU Foreign Affairs Council, which will meet on 14 October in Luxembourg, will be an opportunity to coordinate a European approach in this direction".

"France reiterates its firm condemnation of Turkey's unilateral offensive in northeastern Syria," the report continues. It "calls into question the security and stabilization efforts of the global coalition against ISIS (Arabic acronym of the Islamic State group, editor's note), which entails significant humanitarian consequences and therefore undermines the security of Europeans".

A similar suspension of arms sales in Ankara was announced Friday and Saturday by the Dutch and German governments.

Turkey on Wednesday launched an offensive in northern Syria against a Kurdish militia, two days after the United States withdrew US military personnel deployed in parts of northern Syria just on the border with Turkey. This Turkish offensive in Syria has already caused the displacement of 100,000 civilians according to the United Nations.