The US Department of State announced on Tuesday, January 13, that it designated the chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon as “terrorist”, over allegations of them posing “a threat to the United States”.
The announcement came less than two months after US President Donal Trump issued an Executive Order to consider “certain chapters or other subdivisions of the Muslim Brotherhood” for designation as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT).
The Department of State also added that the leader of the Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammad Fawzi Taqqosh, was labelled as SDGT.
In addition, it claimed that the move is part of “an ongoing sustained effort to thwart Muslim Brotherhood chapters’ violence and destabilization wherever it occurs”.
Meanwhile, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said in a separate statement, on Tuesday, that it designated the concerned branches of the organization in the respective countries as SDGT over alleged links to Hamas, which the office said “threatens the interests of the United States and its allies”.
“Chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood purport to be legitimate civic organizations while, behind the scenes, they explicitly and enthusiastically support terrorist groups like Hamas. Consequently, OFAC is designating the Egyptian and Jordanian branches of the Muslim Brotherhood for their material support to Hamas as Specially Designated Global Terrorists,” the statement reads.
Moreover, OFAC accused the sanctioned chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood of “undermining the sovereignty of their own national governments”.
It is worth noting that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt has been subjected to a severe crackdown campaign by the Egyptian authorities, since President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi rose to power through a military coup d’état in 2013.
The group was also banned by the Jordanian government in April 2025 for purportedly “orchestrating a security plot” in the country.
Read more: Jordan bans Muslim Brotherhood, confiscates its assets after alleged security plot
Furthermore, the Al-Jamaa al-Islamiyah, which is believed to be an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood in Lebanon, has been pursued by local security authorities as part of the US-dictated plan to confine weapons to the Lebanese state.
Analysts assume that the Trump administration’s sanctions on the targeted organizations aims to further tighten the stranglehold on Hamas, by intimidating its supporters – on the political and popular levels – before an agreement on phase two of the US-brokered Gaza ceasefire deal is reached.
By doing so, the United States and Israel hope to push Hamas to concede being part of any future Palestinian government that would rule post-war Gaza.
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