Washington Considers Expanding Its List of Foreign Terrorist Organizations

(Wikimedia Commons/KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images)

The commander of the IRGC's elite Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani (L), and ousted Egyptian President and Muslim Brotherhood member Mohammed Morsi. The United States is considering placing both organizations on its list of foreign terrorist organizations.

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is deliberating over whether to designate two very different Islamist groups in the Middle East as foreign terrorist organizations. On Monday, the White House considered issuing an executive order to declare the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a terrorist group. The administration has since indefinitely delayed the order in response to concerns from U.S. defense and intelligence officials. A similar deliberation has been ongoing regarding the Muslim Brotherhood. The matter will doubtless come up again when Trump meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington on Feb. 15. If the administration decides to follow through with the order, it could reassure the U.S. allies in the Middle East that feel most threatened by the Muslim Brotherhood and IRGC. At the same time, however, the move would risk destabilizing other partnerships in the region.