Mr al-Afari who was a geologist with Iraq's Ministry of Industry and Minerals accepted the position as the Daesh terror group became the new government there.
Afari, who's now on death row, detailed the terrorist group's successful attempts to make sulphur mustard as part of an effort to create new weapons and delivery systems to defend Daesh territory.
Sputnik: How convinced are you by the report and do you think that the scientist's story could be verified?
Ely Karmon: It's quite an accurate report from the information that we have researched, that personally, I've led during the last years on the CBRN — chemical, biological and radiological attacks in Syria and Iraq. Practically all this information that he presented in the interview is known and it was partially published in the past.
READ MORE: Daesh Seeks to Take Down Airplanes, Could Use Chemical Weapons — US Congressman
Sputnik: With the story published by The Washington Post what are the chances that it would serve as another excuse for the United States not to withdraw from the Middle East?
Ely Karmon: No, I don't think that this will change because there is a political decision by President Trump and we saw that even the advice and even the pressure from his state Defence Minister General Mattis and other very important advisers and officials did not convince the president. And again, this information was known.
We know that most of the capabilities of ISIS [Daesh] in Iraq and Syria, but many in Iraq have been destroyed by the United States activities as it explains in the article.
Less than a year after that another very important leader of the chemical project called Abu Dawud, he was taken a prisoner and during his interrogation, the Americans and the Iraqi forces received a lot of information about laboratories and people involved in the project; mainly in the city of Mosul.
And for several months the American coalition has targeted specifically these laboratories, part of the University of Mosul and private houses and destroyed systematically this kind of facilities because they were considered to be very dangerous not only for fighting in Iraq and Syria but also as a danger of countries outside the Middle East.
READ MORE: Four Americans KILLED in Syria From Daesh Attack
Sputnik: According to recent estimates the Islamic State [Daesh] has 30,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria is it possible that the group will make a comeback?
Ely Karmon: They have decided on a two-stage strategy already before the liberation of Mosul in 2017. First of all by going in clandestine activity, insurgency inside Iraq, mainly Iraq because the leadership and many of the activists are of Iraqi origin and they have their support of some of the tribes, some part of the Sunni population.
The second level of activity or decision was to relocate and most of the relocation happened already into Afghanistan. We see what's happened in Afghanistan because besides the Taliban there's a lot of activity of ISIS fighters. And partially in Libya, because Libya is still a very unstable and uncontrolled territory.
Turkey has promised to fight ISIS but from history, we know that from the past few years Turkey has cooperated in a way with ISIS. The main interest of Turkey is not ISIS but the Kurdish autonomy or independence in northern Syria.
Sepatately, Professor Clive Williams MG, Centre for Military & Security Law from the Australian National University has also discussed the issue with Sputnik. "The consensus among arms control experts is that what Suleiman al-Afari says is highly credible. Given the circumstances under which he cooperated with Islamic State [Daesh*], and his subsequent assistance to the US and Kurds, it would seem inappropriate to execute him. It would also send the wrong message to others who might be prepared to cooperate with the US-led coalition in the future."
Views and opinions, expressed in the article are those of Ely Karmon and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik
* Daesh (ISIL/ISIS/IS/Islamic State) is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia
