File Photo: Egyptian policemen shoot teargas booms to disperse pro-Muslim Brotherhood students outside the campus of Cairo University, Cairo, capital of Egypt, on March 26, 2014. (Xinhua/Pan Chaoyue)
WASHINGTON, April 30 (Xinhua) -- Washington is working to identify the Muslim Brotherhood as a "foreign terrorist organization"(FTO), U.S. media reported on Tuesday, citing White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.
Sanders acknowledged to media in a statement that U.S. President Donald Trump had consulted this issue with his national security team and regional leaders, and the designation "was working its way through the internal process."
U.S. media reported that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi urged Trump to take that step during his visit to Washington in early April.
U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton and State Secretary Mike Pompeo supported the idea while the Pentagon, career national security staff, government lawyers and diplomatic officials have voiced legal and policy objections, according to reports quoted officials familiar with the matter.
On April 8, the United States designated Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as an FTO, which was the first time that Washington had named a part of another government as a terrorist organization.
Founded in 1928 in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood is an influential Islamist political movement with millions of members across the Middle East.
Egypt labeled the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group. Many of its members and loyalists, including former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, are currently jailed, and many have received appealable death sentences and life imprisonments over charges varying from inciting violence and murder to espionage and jailbreak.