White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement that the Trump administration was working on blacklisting the Muslim Brotherhood* by assigning it the status of a foreign terrorist organisation.
"The president has consulted with his national security team and leaders in the region who share his concern, and this designation is working its way through the internal process", Sanders said, as quoted by The New York Times.
The report suggests that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, as well as National Security Advisor John Bolton, have favoured the idea.
Nevertheless, the US Department of Defence, along with several national security and diplomatic officials, has expressed opposition to the move, suggesting a more limited step instead.
READ MORE: Egypt Seeks Death Sentences for Muslim Brotherhood Supporters Over 2013 Sit-In
The development comes as Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi reportedly called on the US president to make the move in the course of a visit to the White House that took place on 9 April.
Cairo outlawed the group in 2013 after el-Sisi ousted President Mohamed Morsi, who belonged to the Brotherhood.
The Muslim Brotherhood, also known as the Society of the Muslim Brothers, is a transnational Sunni Islamist organisation established in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928.
* The Muslim Brotherhood (sometimes referred to as the Society of the Muslim Brothers) is an extremist organisation banned in Russia.
