Italy's foreign minister Luigi Di Maio on Tuesday pointed the finger at Turkey for its six-day-old military offensive in Kurdish administered northern Syria, urging an immediate truce.
"Turkey alone is responsible for the escalation and must halt its military operations immediately," said Di Maio told lawmakers on Tuesday.
"These were the two messages that we actively worked on yesterday in Luxembourg," Di Maio said, referring to a meeting of European Union foreign ministers held on Monday.
Di Maio told reporters after the summit that the EU foreign ministers had agreed to half future arms exports to Turkey over its aerial campaign in northern Syria and said an Italian government decree imposing such a ban was imminent.
Italian authorities will also investigate current contracts to export arms to Turkey, Di Maio told the lower house of parliament on Tuesday.
