White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump was consulting with his advisers and leaders in the region who share his concern about the Islamist movement with followers across the Middle East. "This designation is working its way through the internal process," she said.

The New York Times first reported on Tuesday that the administration was pushing to designate the group, but the idea is not new. Some people think the Muslim Brotherhood does not meet the legal criteria required for the designation. Others think the organization is too diverse and spread out across nations, making it difficult to enforce a one-size-fits-all description. There also questions about whether a designation would complicate U.S. diplomacy.

The group was founded in Egypt in the late 1920s and now operates in many countries. Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi came to power in 2014 after removing his predecessor, Mohammed Morsi, who came from the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt has since outlawed the group and has encouraged the U.S. to follow suit.

To meet the legal criteria for the designation, a group must engage in terrorist activity that threatens the security of Americans or the defense, foreign relations or economic interests of the United States.

Jonathan Schanzer, with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington think tank, said some violent branches of the group could be designated, but other members support its extremist political views but not violence.

That "blurry" picture of the group was what discouraged earlier U.S. administrations from designating it, he said. The Muslim Brotherhood in Libya, Syria and Yemen have apparent ties to militants, while the group in Jordan bills itself as a political group, said Schanzer, who advises against a "blanket terrorist designation" of the group.

Some national security legal experts conclude that the Muslim Brotherhood is too diffuse to designate. They say elements of the group are violent and could continue to be designated, but that, as a whole, it does not create a terrorist threat to the United States.

Enforcing such a designation could be difficult.

Schanzer said intelligence on group members that Jordan or Egypt share with the U.S., for example, could likely be tainted by their desire to weaken political opposition from Islamists in their countries. Designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group also could further strain U.S. relations with Turkey.

The political party of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. U.S.-Turkey relations are at an impasse over Ankara's decision to purchase the Russian S-400 missile system.

Asked by reporters at the White House whether there were any concerns that designating the Muslim Brotherhood could create diplomatic complications for the administration because the group is so widespread, Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway replied: "No."

Daniel Benjamin, former counterterrorism coordinator at the State Department, said the department looked into designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization in 2017 and 2018 and concluded that there was no legal basis for a designation.

"That continues to be true," tweeted Benjamin, who is now at Dartmouth College. He accused the Trump administration of "warping" the designation process for political reasons. "It's malpractice and ultimately dangerous," Benjamin said in his tweet.

Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani signed a bill into law on Tuesday declaring all U.S. forces in the Middle East terrorists and calling the U.S. government a sponsor of terrorism.

The bill was passed by parliament last week in retaliation for Trump's decision this month to designate Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards a foreign terrorist organization.

It was not clear what the impact of the new Iranian law might have on U.S. forces or their Middle East operations.

Rouhani instructed the ministry of intelligence, ministry of foreign affairs, the armed forces, and Iran's supreme national security council to implement the law, state media reported.

The law specifically labels as a terrorist organization the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), which is responsible for U.S. military operations in the Middle East and Afghanistan.

"These two forces [Guards and CENTCOM] that are designated as terrorist groups reciprocally might confront [each other] in the Persian Gulf or any other region. The United States will surely be responsible for such a situation," Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi was quoted as saying by state-run Islamic Republic News Agency on Tuesday.

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State television showed crowds shouting: "What's America thinking? Iran is full of Guards" after leaving Friday prayers at Tehran University on their way to a rally in a nearby square. Similar state-sponsored protests were held across Iran, it said.

Iranian officials have condemned U.S. President Donald Trump's decision on Monday to blacklist the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps , a step is likely to raise tensions in the Middle East.

Tehran retaliated by naming the regional United States Central Command (CENTCOM) as a terrorist organization.

"Americans should know that this is a self-inflicted blow, meaning that they are jeopardizing the security of their own troops in CENTCOM and across the world," Gen. Kioumars Heydari, head of the regular army's ground forces, was quoted as saying on Friday by the semiofficial Iranian Students News Agency.

The estimated 125,000-strong Revolutionary Guards also command the volunteer paramilitary Basij and control Iran's ballistic missile program. The Guards' overseas Quds forces have fought Iran's proxy wars in the region.

The United States has already blacklisted dozens of entities and people for affiliations with the IRGC but had not previously targeted the organization as a whole.

"Today, it has been proven to the people of the world and of this region in particular that America is the mother of all terrorism," said Tehran Friday prayers leader Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Movahedi-Kermani, clad in a Revolutionary Guards uniform, state media reported.

The long-tense relations between Tehran and Washington took a turn for the worse last May when Trump pulled out of a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers, reached before he took office, and reimposed sanctions.

Revolutionary Guards commanders have repeatedly said that U.S. bases in the Middle East and U.S. aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf are within range of Iranian missiles.

Tehran has also threatened to disrupt oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf if the United States tries to strangle Iran's economy by halting its oil exports.

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Iran has warned it will take reciprocal action against Washington for its move against the Guards, the country's most powerful security organization and a major component of its economy.

It is the first time the United States has formally labeled another country's military a terrorist group.

"The IRGC is the Iranian government's primary means of directing and implementing its global terrorist campaign," Trump said in a statement.

The designation "makes crystal clear the risks of conducting business with, or providing support to, the IRGC," Trump said. "If you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism."

Critics have warned that the move could open U.S. military and intelligence officials to similar actions by unfriendly governments. The United States has already blacklisted dozens of entities and people for affiliations with the IRGC, but not the organization as a whole.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a strident critic of Iran, has pushed for the change in U.S. policy as part of the Trump administration's tough posture toward Tehran. Pompeo told a news conference the designation will take effect in one week.

The announcement comes shortly before the first anniversary of Trump's decision to pull out of a 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran and to reimpose sanctions that had crippled Iran's economy.

In reaction to the designation, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused Israel's supporters of being behind the administration's decision. According to other media reports, he also advised the Iranian regime of retaliating by designating U.S. forces in the region as terrorists.

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