Jordan bans Muslim Brotherhood as king visits Saudi Arabia

The Jordanian government banned the Muslim Brotherhood on Wednesday, just over a week after alleging affiliates of the organization were planning a plot against the kingdom.

Interior Minister Mazin Al-Farrayeh said that the group’s activities are banned and that membership in the organization as well as promoting its ideas are prohibited. He added that their offices would be closed and belongings confiscated, state media outlet Al-Mamlaka reported.

Jordan’s official news agency Petra reported later on Wednesday that the judicial police had begun searching sites used by the Muslim Brotherhood across the country.

The move follows Jordan announcing the arrest of 16 people last week accused of “sowing chaos and sabotage within Jordan” including via the manufacturing of drones and rockets. Confessions aired on state television showed some of the accused saying they were recruited by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Authorities said the alleged perpetrators belonged to an unspecified “unlicensed and dissolved group” and that the cell’s leader was in Lebanon.

The Muslim Brotherhood did not immediately comment.

The Muslim Brotherhood is an Islamist organization popular throughout the Middle East, including in Jordan. The organization was ordered to dissolve after a 2020 court ruling, though the Islamic Action Front, a political offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, was allowed to continue operating. The Islamic Action Front won 31 out of 138 parliament seats in the September elections, the most votes for any party but short of a majority.

It was not immediately clear how the Interior Ministry announcement will affect the party. On Tuesday, the Islamic Action Front said it suspended three of its members for their alleged involvement in last week’s plot, the state-owned Jordan Times reported.

The announcement to ban the Muslim Brotherhood was made during King Abdullah II’s trip to Saudi Arabia, where he met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Wednesday.

The two discussed regional affairs, particularly in the West Bank and Gaza, Petra reported. 

The official Saudi Press Agency reported at 4:41 p.m. local time (9:41 a.m. EST) that King Abdullah had left Saudi Arabia.

The Muslim Brotherhood has been banned by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt. The organization has historically had friendly relations with Qatar and Turkey and is politically active in the Palestinian territories and in Syria since the toppling of the Assad regime, as well as in Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Kuwait, Lebanon and Yemen.

This developing story has been updated since initial publication.