WASHINGTON, United States: The United States on Tuesday designated the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt as well as Lebanon and Jordan as terrorist organizations, fulfilling a long demand of Arab allies and US conservatives.
“These designations reflect the opening actions of an ongoing, sustained effort to thwart Muslim Brotherhood chapters´ violence and destabilisation 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.”
President Donald Trump in November set in motion the process to take action against the pan-Islamist movement, which was founded in Egypt in 1928 and has since spread across the Arab world.
The Trump administration designated the Egyptian as well as Jordanian chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood on the basis of their support for Hamas, the Palestinian armed group long classified as terrorists by the United States.
The Muslim Brotherhood rose to power in Egypt democratically through the election of Mohamed Morsi. He was deposed in 2013 in a military coup by then military chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who has since pursued a sweeping crackdown against the Muslim Brotherhood.
Egypt as well as fellow US allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have long sought to suppress the Muslim Brotherhood.Egypt’s Foreign Ministry welcomed on Tuesday the United States’ designation of the Egyptian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood as global terrorists.
The move, which Washington formally set in motion last November, will bring sanctions against one of the Arab world’s oldest and most influential Islamist movements.
