Wednesday, January 14, 2026 - The United States on Tuesday, Jan. 13, designated the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt as well as Lebanon and Jordan as terrorist organizations.
Founded in 1928 in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, a 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.
“Today, as a first step in support of President Trump’s commitment to
eliminate the capabilities and operations of Muslim Brotherhood chapters that
pose a threat to the United States as described in Executive Order 14362, the
United States is imposing terrorist designations against the Lebanese,
Jordanian, and Egyptian chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood,” Secretary of State
Marco Rubio said in a statement.
“These designations reflect the opening actions of an ongoing, sustained
effort to thwart Muslim Brotherhood chapters’ violence and destabilization
wherever it occurs.
“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 United States will block any assets by the
Muslim Brotherhood in the world’s largest economy and criminalize transactions
with the groups.
The move also severely impedes members’ ability to travel to the United
States.
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.
The movement rose to power in its native Egypt democratically through the
2012 election of Mohamed Morsi following the overthrow of longtime ruler Hosni
Mubarak, who had imposed a ban on the Muslim Brotherhood even though some of
its activities were tolerated, including its network of social services.
Morsi was deposed in 2013 in a coup by then military chief Abdel Fattah
al-Sisi, who has since pursued a sweeping crackdown against the Muslim
Brotherhood.
Egypt as well as US-allied monarchies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates have long sought to suppress the Muslim Brotherhood, whose vision
calls for the creation of a unified Islamic caliphate.
The Trump administration designated the groups in part on the basis of
their support for Hamas, the Palestinian armed group long classified as
terrorist by the United States.
The Treasury Department said that the Egyptian and Jordanian branches of
the brotherhood both have coordinated with Hamas, whose massive October 7, 2023
attack on Israel triggered an overwhelming Israeli offensive into Gaza.
The State Department said that in Lebanon, 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.
The Muslim Brotherhood had gained strength in Jordan, where its political
wing is the main opposition party in parliament.
In April last year, Jordan banned the Muslim Brotherhood, ordering
confiscation of its assets, after accusing the movement of stockpiling weapons
and planning to destabilize the kingdom, which has a peace agreement with
Israel.
In recent years, US conservatives have also seized upon the Muslim
Brotherhood, with some spreading the unfounded conspiracy theory that the
organization is infiltrating the US government with a goal of imposing Islamic
sharia law.
Republican lawmakers have repeatedly sought a ban on the Muslim
Brotherhood, hoping to cut off any financing for the movement.
The United States had held off on the designation in part out of concern
about jeopardizing ties with Turkey, whose president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has
deep and longstanding ideological affinity with the Muslim Brotherhood.
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