Long viewed as a U.S. ally, Jordan currently hosts more than 3,500 U.S. troops and a string of U.S. military bases.
The Middle Eastern nation of Jordan has outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood group, following claims that some of its members had plotted to destabilize the country.
“It has been proven that members of the group operate in the dark and engage in activities that could destabilize the country,” Jordan’s Ministry of Interior said in a statement on April 23.
“Members of the dissolved Muslim Brotherhood have tampered with security and national unity and disrupted security and public order.”
The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the region’s oldest and most influential Islamist movements, has denied any involvement in the alleged plot.
The Islamic Action Front (IAF), the brotherhood’s political wing in Jordan, is the country’s largest opposition party.
Since 1992, the IAF has operated legally in Jordan, where it enjoys considerable popular support and has offices in a number of towns and cities.
After legislative elections held in 2024, the IAF became the largest opposition bloc in the country’s Parliament.
However, most assembly seats remain held by representatives loyal to Jordan’s long-ruling Hashemite dynasty, which is currently led by King Abdullah II.
Wael al-Saqqa, IAF secretary general, has denied that the party has any organizational ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, describing the IAF as an independent political party that operates within the confines of the law.
Speaking earlier this week, al-Saqqa claimed that the IAF has “no relationship with any other organizational body, whatever it may be.”
The IAF, he said, remained firmly committed “to order, the law, and the provisions of the constitution.”
Nevertheless, Interior Minister Mazin al-Farrayeh said on April 23 that all Muslim Brotherhood-linked activities had been banned countrywide and that anyone found promoting the group’s ideology would face prosecution.
Within the context of the ban, he noted, all IAF offices would be closed down, while all the party’s assets and properties would be confiscated by the state.
Opponents of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is currently banned in most Arab countries, say the group is a dangerous terrorist organization.
By Adam Morrow
