Egypt welcomes US designation of 2 groups as ‘terrorist’

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt welcomed on Thursday a US designation of two groups targeting Egyptian security and public figures as “terrorist” groups.

The US State Department labeled the Hasm movement and Liwaa el-Thawra as “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” groups on Wednesday, which blocks any assets they may have in US jurisdictions and bars Americans from making financial transactions with them.

Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday the move is “a positive development” and “a practical display of solidarity with Egypt against terrorism.”

Egyptian authorities believe they are splinter factions of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization that Egypt has outlawed since 2013. The US says some leaders of the two groups were previously associated with the Brotherhood.

Attacks have surged since the military’s 2013 ouster of then-president Mohammed Morsi, a senior Brotherhood figure.

The US also put the head of Palestinian terror group Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, on the terror blacklist and slapped sanctions on him.

It also imposed sanctions on Harakat al-Sabireen, a small Gazan terror group that splintered away from the Islamic Jihad and, like Hamas, is close to Iran.