The United States designated the Muslim Brotherhood branches in Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan as terrorist organisations.
Founded in Egypt in 1928, the pan-Islamist movement once spread across the Arab world, but it has been in retreat as it comes under concerted pressure from major Arab powers.
“These designations reflect the opening actions of an ongoing, sustained effort to thwart Muslim Brotherhood chapters’ violence and destabilization wherever it occurs,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. “The United States will use all available tools to deprive these Muslim Brotherhood chapters of the resources to engage in or support terrorism.”
The designations mean that the US will block any of the Muslim Brotherhood’s assets in the world’s largest economy and criminalize transactions with its chapters. The move also severely impedes its members’ ability to travel to the US.
The Trump administration designated the groups in part based on their support for Hamas, the Palestinian armed group that the US has long classified as a terrorist organisation.
The Treasury Department said that the Egyptian and Jordanian branches of the Brotherhood have both coordinated with Hamas, whose massive October 7, 2023, attack on Israel triggered an overwhelming Israeli offensive into Gaza.
In Lebanon, the State Department said that the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni Muslim movement, had allied itself with Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite militants, in firing rockets into Israel. The Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood has “pushed for a more formal alignment with the Hizballah-Hamas axis,” the State Department said.
Egypt hailed the decision, which President Donald Trump had set in motion in November. The terrorist designation “reflects the danger of this group and its extremist ideology and the direct threat it poses to regional and international security and stability,” the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement.
