The United States has announced a major escalation in its counterterrorism policy toward the Muslim Brotherhood, formally designating several of its national chapters as terrorist entities. Acting under Executive Order 14362, issued in November 2025, the Departments of State and the Treasury designated the Lebanese, Egyptian, and Jordanian branches of the Muslim Brotherhood for their alleged involvement in, and material support for, terrorism—particularly in connection with Hamas.
Expanding Counterterrorism Strategy Against Muslim Brotherhood Networks
According to U.S. officials, these designations represent the opening phase of a broader and sustained campaign aimed at dismantling what the administration describes as the Muslim Brotherhood’s transnational infrastructure, financial networks, and operational links to designated terrorist organizations. The measures carry significant legal and financial consequences, including asset freezes, prohibitions on transactions by U.S. persons, and the potential application of secondary sanctions against foreign entities that engage with the designated groups.
The Department of State designated the Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood, also known as al-Jamaa al-Islamiyah, as both a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). In a concurrent action, it also designated the group’s secretary general, Muhammad Fawzi Taqqosh, as an SDGT. U.S. officials allege that the Lebanese branch has played a direct operational role in hostilities against Israel since the outbreak of the Gaza war following Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attacks.
According to a State Department fact sheet, the Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood reactivated its armed wing, the al-Fajr Forces, after October 2023 and coordinated rocket launches into northern Israel alongside Hizballah and Hamas. Israeli forces reportedly targeted al-Fajr operatives in March 2024 as they were preparing attacks, and in July 2025 the Lebanese Army dismantled a covert training camp that allegedly included both Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas militants. U.S. officials further assert that under Taqqosh’s leadership, the group pursued closer alignment with the Hizballah-Hamas axis.
At the same time, the Department of the Treasury, through its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), designated the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (EMB) and the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood (JMB) as Specially Designated Global Terrorists for allegedly providing financial, logistical, and operational support to Hamas. Treasury officials stated that while these organizations publicly present themselves as civic or political movements, they have covertly supported terrorism and destabilized their own national governments.
Links to Hamas and a History of Militant Offshoots
U.S. authorities argue that Hamas itself has long acknowledged ideological and organizational roots in the Muslim Brotherhood. In its 1988 charter, Hamas described itself as the Brotherhood’s Palestinian wing, and successive U.S. administrations have designated Hamas as both an FTO and an SDGT since 1997. The October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed nearly 1,200 people—including at least 31 U.S. citizens—and resulted in the kidnapping of more than 240 individuals, are cited as a central catalyst for the current U.S. actions.
The U.S. government situates these new designations within a longer historical narrative linking the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood to violent offshoots and successor organizations. Among those cited are Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), Gama’a al-Islamiyya, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), HASM, and Liwa al-Thawra—all groups that have previously been designated by the United States as terrorist organizations. EIJ, which assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981 and later merged with al-Qa’ida, is highlighted as an early example of the Brotherhood’s militant offshoots. Gama’a al-Islamiyya is linked to major attacks in Egypt in the 1990s and to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing through its spiritual leader, Omar Abdel Rahman.
More recent Egyptian groups, including HASM and Liwa al-Thawra, are described as armed Brotherhood splinters responsible for assassination attempts, bombings, and attacks on Egyptian security officials between 2015 and 2019. Treasury officials argue that these groups demonstrate a continuing pattern in which Brotherhood-linked entities oscillate between political activity and violent militancy depending on opportunity and pressure.
With respect to Jordan, U.S. authorities allege that Brotherhood-connected networks have been involved since early 2025 in manufacturing rockets, explosives, and drones, as well as recruiting operatives and raising funds through illegal channels. These activities allegedly occurred despite a 2020 Jordanian court ruling dissolving the Muslim Brotherhood as a legal entity.
Sanctions, Enforcement, and Broader Regional Implications
The legal and financial implications of the designations are extensive. All property and interests in property of the designated organizations and individuals that fall within U.S. jurisdiction are frozen. U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with them, and entities owned 50 percent or more by designated parties are likewise blocked. Violations can result in severe civil or criminal penalties, applied on a strict-liability basis. Foreign financial institutions and businesses that knowingly facilitate significant transactions with designated entities may also face secondary sanctions, including restrictions on access to the U.S. financial system.
Senior U.S. officials emphasized that the goal of sanctions is not punitive but behavioral: to isolate terrorist networks, deny them resources, and compel disengagement from violence. They also noted that OFAC maintains formal procedures for delisting should designated parties demonstrate a verifiable change in conduct consistent with U.S. law.
Taken together, the measures mark one of the most comprehensive U.S. actions to date against the Muslim Brotherhood as a transnational movement. They also signal a shift from targeting individual militant offshoots toward addressing what the administration characterizes as the Brotherhood’s broader organizational ecosystem. The extent to which these designations will affect regional politics, allied governments’ policies, and ongoing debates about political Islam remains to be seen.
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