Moscow, August 27 (RHC)-- The Russian Defense Ministry says the U.S., Britain and France are preparing to conduct a fresh aerial assault against Syria under the pretext of the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Damascus government.
 
The ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said that a group of militants, who were trained by a private British military company to work with poisonous materials, had already arrived in Syria's northwestern Idlib Province.  
 
"To carry out the alleged 'chemical attack' in the city of Jisr al-Shughur in the province of Idlib, militants from the Tahrir al-Sham group had delivered 8 tankers with chlorine" to a village a few kilometers from Jisr al-Shughur," Konashenkov said.
 
The Russian general further warned that a possible militant gas attack on Syria would be followed by a Western strike against the Arab country.
 
"This provocation with the active participation of the British special services will serve as another pretext for the U.S., UK and France to conduct a missile strike on the Syrian government and economic facilities," he said.
 
The Russian official further noted that the American destroyer USS The Sullivans armed with 56 cruise missiles had also arrived in the Persian Gulf and a U.S. ?-1? bomber carrying 24 air-to-surface AGM-158 JASSM cruise missiles had been deployed at Al Udeid airbase in Qatar.
 
"Western countries' actions in spite of their public statements are aimed at another sharp deterioration of the situation in the Middle East region and the disruption of the peace process on the territory of Syria."
 
The warning comes as the Syrian army is now preparing for an operation to liberate Idlib Province, the last major militant stronghold.
 
On Saturday, Bloomberg reported that U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton had warned his Russian counterpart, Nikolai Patrushev, that Washington was prepared to take strong military action against Syria if it used chemical weapons in Idlib.