Jordanian police raid Muslim Brotherhood, opposition party offices

Jordanian police on Wednesday raided several offices of the now-proscribed Muslim Brotherhood movement, which was outlawed in the country on the same day.

Jordan banned all activities by the Brotherhood, a pan-Islamic political movement which has a presence in many Muslim-majority countries, and was the country’s most vocal opposition group.

The group is banned in many Arab countries, and was somewhat tolerated in Jordan until recent years when a crackdown against the group's political wing - the Islamic Action Front - intensified.

The ban came after an alleged plot by the group involving rockets and drones was foiled by Jordanian authorities.

The announcement by Interior Minister Mazen al-Faraya included the closure of all of the group's offices, including those held in partnership with other organisations.

According to Jordan’s state-funded al-Mamlaka TV, the raids on Wednesday included a search of the Islamic Action Front party headquarters. Police were reportedly searching for links between the party and the now-banned Islamist movement.

A correspondent for al-Mamlaka said police seized documents, boxes and computers from the party headquarters.

Speaking on Wednesday, Islamic Action Front Secretary-General Wael Saqqa said his party has "nothing to hide" and will fully comply with the country’s laws.

"As the largest Jordanian party for more than 30 years, with 31 members in the House of Representatives and more than 40 branches in the Kingdom, we have carried out all our operations in accordance with the Jordanian Parties’ Law and the Constitution," Saqqa said. "We believe that we are exercising our constitutional right in accordance with the Parties’ Law and the party’s objectives declared in its bylaws to defend the interests of the nation and the citizen, preserve Jordan’s security, safety and stability, and interact positively with various national issues through the party and its parliamentary bloc. We have nothing to hide."

The raids in Jordan came on the same day as a meeting between Jordan's King Abdullah II and Saudi Crown Prince  Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah.

The pair discussed "overall developments in the region, foremost among which are the situations in Gaza and the West Bank", according to the Saudi Press Agency.

Saudi Arabia, a key regional player, has long opposed the Muslim Brotherhood, which it views as a threat to the kingdom's dynastic system of rule. The kingdom’s Salafist clerics have long spoken against the movement and its ideology, considering it a form of religious deviance due to its criticism of the rulers of Muslim-majority states.

The Brotherhood is considered a proscribed terror group by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates.

In 2020, Jordan's top court dissolved the Muslim Brotherhood after Amman recognised a splinter group and transferred the movement's assets to the new organisation.

Founded in 1928 in Egypt, the Brotherhood has operated as both a political movement and a social welfare organisation, however, it has faced decades of crackdowns across the Arab world.

In 2013, the Brotherhood was forced back underground in Egypt after the country’s first democratically-elected president Mohammad Morsi was toppled in a military coup.

Thousands of the group's members remain in Egypt’s prisons, many having been tried and sentenced in mass trials criticised by human rights groups.

While largely non-violent, the Brotherhood movement is also linked to groups with armed wings, including Hamas in Gaza, which began as a chapter of the movement in Egypt.