Donald Trump administration is working to designate Egypt’s oldest Islamist movement the Muslim Brotherhood as a ‘foreign terrorist organization’, reported the Reuters.
The New York Times quoting Reuters 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,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in an email.
The NYT further reported that the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi asked President Donald Trump to make the designation, which Egypt has already done, in a private meeting during a visit to Washington on April 9.
After the meeting, Trump praised Sisi as a “great president,” as a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers raised concerns about Sisi’s record on human rights, efforts to keep him in office for many years and planned Russian arms purchases.
Recently, The United States designated Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps a foreign “terrorist” organisation, an unprecedented declaration against a foreign government that may prompt retaliation and make it harder for American diplomats and military officers to work with allies in the region.
In a counter, Iranian parliament approved a bill that labels all US military forces as terrorist.
