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US may ban Muslim Brotherhood

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The Trump administration is considering banning the Muslim Brotherhood and designating it a foreign terrorist organisation under US law, the White House confirmed yesterday.

Responding to a report in the New York Times, the President’s Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said: “The President has consulted with his national security team and leaders in the region who share his concern, and this designation is working its way through the internal process.” The move would impose “wide-ranging economic and travel sanctions” on entities that do business with the group, Sanders said.

According to the New York Times, following a visit to the White House by Egypt’s President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi, at which Sisi urged President Trump to make such a move, the Trump administration “directed national security and diplomatic officials to find a way to place sanctions on the group.”

The New York Times claims that the proposal has prompted: “Fierce debate within the administration, including at a senior-level meeting of policymakers from various departments convened last week by the White House’s National Security Council.” National Security Adviser John Bolton, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo support the idea but the Pentagon, national security staff, government lawyers and diplomats have expressed legal and policy objections.

The objections, according to the New York Times, are that: “The criteria for designating a terrorist organisation are not a good fit for the Muslim Brotherhood, which is less a coherent body than a loose-knit movement with chapters in different countries that either use that moniker or have strong historical ties to it. Several political parties in places like Tunisia and Jordan consider themselves Muslim Brotherhood or have ties to it, but eschew violent extremism.  As a matter of policy, such a designation could have rippling consequences, including further stressing relations with Turkey, whose president, Recep Erdogan, is a staunch Brotherhood supporter. It is also unclear what the consequences would be for Americans and American humanitarian organisations with links to the group, and officials worry that Sisi might use it to justify an even harsher crackdown against his opponents.”

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928 and the Egyptian Government considers them to be a terrorist organisation. President Sisi overthrew President Mohammed Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood leader, in 2013. Shadi Hamid from the Brookings Institute said yesterday: “There is not a single American expert on the Muslim Brotherhood who supports designating them” as a terrorist group.