Secretary of State Marco Rubio has designated the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood (SMB) as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist and plans to designate the group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization next week.
According to a statement from the State Department, the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood uses “unrestrained violence against civilians to undermine efforts to resolve the conflict in Sudan and advance its violent Islamist ideology.” Many of its fighters have been trained under Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and have “conducted mass executions of civilians.”
A fact sheet on the matter explains that the SMB has contributed as many as 20,000 fighters to the war in Sudan.
In November, President Trump signed an executive order launching the process of designating chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist entities.
“This order sets in motion a process by which certain chapters or other subdivisions of the Muslim Brotherhood shall be considered for designation as Foreign Terrorist Organizations,” the November order states. It adds that the United States will “cooperate with its regional partners to eliminate the capabilities and operations of Muslim Brotherhood chapters designated as foreign terrorist organizations pursuant to section 3 of this order, deprive those chapters of resources, and thereby end any threat such chapters pose to United States nationals or the national security of the United States.”
The order further condemns its connection to other terrorist groups, such as “Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian factions.”
In January, the Trump administration designated three branches of the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist entities in alignment with the executive order.
