The State and Treasury departments on Tuesday formally designated Muslim Brotherhood chapters operating in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon as foreign terrorist organizations, a sweeping move by the Trump administration that escalates Washington’s long-running confrontation with the Islamist network.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the action marks the opening phase of a broader campaign to dismantle Muslim Brotherhood affiliates accused of violence and regional destabilization. As part of the announcement, the U.S. also designated Muhammad Fawzi Taqqosh, the leader of the Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood, as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.

“These designations reflect the opening actions of an ongoing, sustained effort to address Muslim Brotherhood chapters’ violence and destabilization wherever it occurs,” Rubio said in a statement, adding that Washington would use “all available tools” to cut off resources used to support terrorism.

The Treasury Department simultaneously designated the Egyptian and Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood chapters as Specially Designated Global Terrorists, citing evidence that both organizations aided and abetted Hamas. Treasury officials said the Egyptian branch — founded in 1928 and long considered the movement’s ideological core — has coordinated with and helped finance Hamas for years, while also accepting funds from the group to support agitation aimed at destabilizing the Egyptian government.

In Jordan, officials said members of the Brotherhood “materially assisted Hamas” and were linked to terrorism cases, despite the group having been dissolved by a judicial ruling in 2020 and formally outlawed by the Jordanian government earlier this year.

“Despite their peaceful public façade, both the Egyptian and Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood branches have conspired to support Hamas’s terrorism and undermine the sovereignty of their own national governments,” said John K. Hurley, the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

The designations implement a November executive order signed by President Donald Trump, which directed U.S. agencies to determine whether specific Muslim Brotherhood chapters should be designated as terrorist organizations and to strip them of resources that could threaten U.S. national security.

According to Treasury officials, the Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood’s military wing joined Hamas, Hezbollah and other Palestinian factions in launching rocket attacks against Israeli civilian and military targets following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas assault on Israel. U.S. officials also cited public calls by a senior Egyptian Brotherhood leader on the same day urging violence against U.S. partners, as well as longstanding material support by Jordanian Brotherhood leaders for Hamas’s militant wing.

The sanctions will freeze any property or financial interests held by the designated groups within U.S. jurisdiction and prohibit transactions with entities majority-owned by the Brotherhood. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the measures are intended to disrupt what officials view as an entrenched transnational support network for militant groups.

The move follows a report requested by Trump from Rubio, Bessent, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, evaluating whether the Brotherhood’s chapters in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon met the legal threshold for designation.

The action is likely to reverberate across the Middle East, where the Brotherhood occupies an uneasy position — outlawed in some countries, tolerated or semi-legal in others — and in the U.S., where previous administrations stopped short of broad designations. Florida and Texas have independently designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)