The Trump administration designated three Middle Eastern branches of the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations, claiming the groups contribute to regional instability and violence. 

The actions, announced by the Treasury and State departments, target the Muslim Brotherhood’s Lebanese, Jordanian, and Egyptian branches. The State Department designated the Lebanese branch as a foreign terrorist organization, a step that bars the prohibition of material support to the group. 

Under the Treasury action, the organization’s Jordanian and Egyptian branches are now included in the U.S. list of specially designated global terrorists for their alleged support to Hamas. 

“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.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a post on X that the Muslim Brotherhood has “a longstanding record of perpetrating acts of terror,” and that the administration is working “aggressively to cut them off from the financial system.”

Rubio and Bessent were directed by an executive order signed by Trump last year to determine how to impose sanctions on the groups, the Associated Press reported. The order cited claims that a wing of the Lebanese chapter launched rockets at Israel after Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, and that leaders of the group in Jordan provided support to Hamas.

Muslim Brotherhood leaders have said they renounce violence, and the AP reported that the Egyptian and Lebanese branches rejected the U.S. designations. 

The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood said it would pursue legal avenues to challenge the move and denied involvement in or support for terrorism, according to the AP. The Lebanese branch, known as al-Jamaa al-Islamiya (the Islamic Group), said it is a licensed political and social entity operating within Lebanese law and argued the U.S. decision has no legal effect inside Lebanon, the news agency reported.

Read more at the Associated Press

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