France criticizes Turkish military intervention in Syria

“France prefers to look things in the face”, Hollande said in a diplomatic speech.

Turkish forces last week launched a two-pronged operation against IS and Kurdish fighters from the People’s Protection Units (YPG) inside Syria.

Matthias Fekl, France’s secretary of state for foreign trade, said Tuesday on RMC radio that “we need a clear, clean, definitive stop” to the negotiations on a proposed Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.

He said it was “perfectly understandable” for Turkey to seek to defend itself against the Islamic State group “after the attacks that this country suffered, and to control its border” with Syria.

Turkey dramatically escalated its involvement in Syria’s civil war last week.

Turkish tanks and artillery are stationed near the Syrian border, in Karkamis, Turkey, Monday, Aug. 29, 2016. Forces who have the support of the anti-Assad coalition, of which France is a part.

Turkey appears determined to create a de facto “safe zone” free of IS and the Kurds near its border.

On Tuesday, Turkish-backed rebels posted footage of their troops praying and walking through villages they captured north of Manbij, across the Sajour River, a Euphrates tributary.

In recent days, Turkish forces have attacked Syrian Kurds aligned with the US, saying they had failed to move east of the Euphrates Rivers.

He said Turkey-backed rebels shelled a village south of Jarablus, killing at least five civilians.

Turkey says USA criticism of the scope and aims of its offensive in northern Syria is “unacceptable” and that it has summoned the US ambassador over the issue.

In Paris, Hollande urged Russia to cooperate with the USA -led coalition and said he would invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to France in October, saying Russia should be “a player in negotiations, not a protagonist in the action”.

Asked if Theresa May shares Mr Hollande’s assessment on the prospects for TTIP negotiations dragging on beyond the end of the year, the spokesman said: “I wouldn’t be drawn on whether TTIP will be concluded by the end of this year or the end of next year”.

The battle in northern Syria now pits US ally Turkey against the Kurdish-led force — a USA -backed proxy that is the most effective ground force battling IS militants in Syria’s 5-year-old civil war.