The Treasury and State departments designated three Muslim Brotherhood branches in the Middle East as terrorist organizations on Tuesday in accordance with an executive order signed by President Donald Trump late last year.
The terrorist designations are targeting Muslim Brotherhood chapters in Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon.
The Treasury Department labeled the Egyptian and Jordanian branches specially designated global terrorists for providing material support to Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that fought Israel for two years in Gaza. The Trump administration said the chapters posed “direct threats” to the United States and undermined the sovereignty of their nations’ governments.
“This Administration will use all tools at our disposal to hold them accountable for the violence they have encouraged across the Middle East and the world in pursuit of their extreme version of Islam,” Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John Hurley said.
Meanwhile, the State Department designated the Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization and a specially designated global terrorist group. The group’s leader, Muhammad Fawzi Taqqosh, is also considered a specially designated global terrorist.
“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. “The United States will use all available tools to deprive these Muslim Brotherhood chapters of the resources to engage in or support terrorism.”
Both departments cited Trump’s Nov. 24 executive order that set in motion the terrorist designation process for Muslim Brotherhood chapters. The order directed Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to take action within 45 days after submitting a report on possible Muslim Brotherhood chapter designations to the president. Tuesday’s announcement falls within that 45-day window.
Founded in Egypt in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood was banned in that country in 2013. The group, responsible for numerous terrorist attacks, was also banned in Jordan last year, but remains legally active in Lebanon.
TRUMP SIGNS ORDER TO BEGIN TERRORIST DESIGNATION PROCESS FOR SOME MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD CHAPTERS
The federal move taken by the Treasury and State departments could complicate the White House’s diplomatic relationships with Qatar and Turkey. Both nations are widely recognized as ardent supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Islamic organization is also being targeted at the state level in the United States. Florida and Texas labeled the group a foreign terrorist organization late last year. The Council on American-Islamic Relations is suing both states for the terrorist designation.
