The U.S. Treasury and State Departments designated several chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) or specially designated global terrorists (SDGTs) on Tuesday.
The State Department has designated the Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood as an FTO and SDGT, and its leader, Muhammad Fawzi Taqqosh, as an SDGT, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Treasury Department has determined the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood to be “SDGTs for providing material support to Hamas,” he added.
The designations come after President Donald Trump ordered a review of Muslim Brotherhood chapters for designation as FTOs or SGDTs in late November.
“These designations reflect the opening actions of an ongoing, sustained effort to thwart Muslim Brotherhood chapters’ violence and destabilization wherever it occurs,” Rubio said.
“The United States will use all available tools to deprive these Muslim Brotherhood chapters of the resources to engage in or support terrorism,” he added.
Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John. K. Hurley issued a statement as well, noting that the Egyptian and Jordanian chapters “have conspired to support Hamas’s terrorism” and undermined their national governments’ sovereignty:
The Muslim Brotherhood has inspired, nurtured, and funded terrorist groups like Hamas, that are direct threats to the safety and security of the American people and our allies…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. This Administration will use all tools at our disposal to hold them accountable for the violence they have encouraged across the Middle East and the world in pursuit of their extreme version of Islam.
The Treasury Department release also lays out sanctions implications as a result of the designations set forth on Tuesday:
As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the designated or blocked persons described above that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC [Office of Foreign Assets Control]. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked. Unless authorized by a general or specific license issued by OFAC, or exempt, OFAC’s regulations generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of blocked persons.
Deputy assistant to the president and Senior Director for Counter Terrorism Sebastian Gorka lauded Trump after the announcements from the State and Treasury Departments.
“This action should have occurred decades ago. But we needed a Commander-in-Chief who understood the existential threat posed by Salafi Jihadism,” he wrote.
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