The Syrian government on Tuesday dismissed White House allegations that it was preparing a new chemical weapons attack.
This comes after activists reported an airstrike on an Islamic State-run jail in eastern Syria that they said killed more than 40 prisoners.
Ali Haidar, the Syrian minister for national reconciliation, dismissed a White House statement on Monday that warned Syrian President Bashar Assad's government against carrying out another chemical attack.
Haidar told Associated Press the charges foreshadowed a new diplomatic campaign against Syria at the UN.
The Kremlin also dismissed the White House statement, which had warned that Assad and his military would "pay a heavy price" if it goes ahead with the attack.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “such threats to Syria’s legitimate leaders are unacceptable.”
Russia is Assad's key backer and sided with him when he denied responsibility for a chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of people in Idlib province on 4 April. Days later, President Donald Trump ordered a retaliatory cruise missile strike on a Syrian air base.
Peskov criticised the Trump administration for using the phrase "another chemical weapons attack," arguing that an independent investigation into the April attack was never conducted despite Russia's calls for one.
The statement by White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said the US had “identified potential preparations for another chemical weapons attack by the Assad regime that would likely result in the mass murder of civilians, including innocent children.”
He said the activities were similar to preparations taken before the attack in April, but provided no evidence or further explanation.
A non-governmental source with close ties to the White House said the administration had received intelligence that the Syrians were mixing precursor chemicals for a possible sarin gas attack in either the east or south of the country, where government troops and allied forces have faced recent setbacks.
A senior Russian lawmaker dismissed the US warning as "provocation".
Frants Klintsevich, first deputy chairman of the defense and security committee in the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, accused the United States of “preparing a new attack on the positions of Syrian forces.”
The US strike in April was the first direct American assault on the Syrian government and Trump's most dramatic military order since becoming President.
Trump said at the time that the chemical attack crossed "many, many lines," and called on "all civilized nations" to join the US in seeking an end to the carnage in Syria.
Syria denied using chemical weapons. Russia's Defense Ministry said the toxic agents were released when a Syrian airstrike hit a rebel chemical weapons arsenal and munitions factory.
(This article has been published in an arrangement with AP and has been edited for length.)
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