President Trump’s advisers are considering an order that would list the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
Current and former Trump administration officials told the Times the measure would also designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and its Quds Force as terror groups as well.
{mosads}Leaders of both already appear on a government terrorism list, but Republicans have urged adding the corps itself as a message to Tehran.
The Iran portions of the plan have strong momentum in the White House, while the Muslim Brotherhood section is less favored, the report said.
The National Security Council and career State Department officials have preached caution on the proposed measure, arguing it lacks a legal basis and could chill relations in the Middle East.
The Brotherhood renounced violence in the 1970s after using it in the decades since its founding in Egypt in 1928.
Brotherhood-affiliated groups exist in places like Egypt, Turkey and Tunisia, meaning any attempt at linking it with terrorism may cause diplomatic tensions overseas.
The Brotherhood calls for a society governed by Islamic law, leading some of Trump’s advisers to worry it may promote similar rules in the U.S.
Trump’s chief strategist and senior counselor, Stephen Bannon, has criticized the Brotherhood and its goals.
Bannon called the group “the foundation of modern terrorism” in a proposed 2007 film on radical Islam, according to a summary obtained by the Washington Times last week.