U.S. policy toward the Muslim Brotherhood hardened last month. Saudi Arabia noticed.
Days before the State Department formally designated Brotherhood branches in several Arab countries, Saudi Arabia’s posture toward Brotherhood-linked actors became a point of focused discussion in Washington, according to a congressional aide familiar with the talks.
The issue surfaced during Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan’s January 6 meetings in Washington, where U.S. lawmakers raised questions about Riyadh’s continued cooperation with Yemen’s Islah party. At the time, internal deliberations were already underway to tighten the U.S. approach toward Brotherhood-affiliated organizations.
“There was an understanding that policy was about to harden,” the aide said. “That context made the Saudi position more sensitive than it might otherwise have been.”
One week later, the State Department formally designated Muslim Brotherhood branches in Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon as terrorist organizations. The decision did not name Islah directly, but it recalibrated how Washington evaluates engagement with Brotherhood-linked movements more broadly.
“That designation changed the baseline,” the aide said. “It wasn’t a judgment on Saudi intentions. It was about whether selective engagement was still something the U.S. would tolerate.” The implications are most visible in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia continues to work with Islah as part of the internationally recognized government coalition against the Houthis, viewing the relationship as a wartime necessity. The UAE has taken a different approach, treating Brotherhood-linked actors as a long-term security threat and structuring its Yemen policy around their marginalization, including support for southern separatist forces.
What had long been managed quietly is now harder to contain. Saudi officials have accused the UAE of facilitating the escape of a separatist leader, intercepting Emirati weapons shipments, and carrying out strikes against forces backed by Abu Dhabi.
“This stopped being just a Yemen issue,” the aide said. “It became a question of how far U.S. red lines now extend—and who they constrain.” Rather than recalibrate immediately, Saudi Arabia has chosen to hedge.
According to the aide, Saudi officials referenced expanding security cooperation with Pakistan and advanced discussions aimed at bringing Turkey into a broader strategic framework.
“The message wasn’t confrontational,” the aide said. “It was implicit. If Washington is narrowing what it considers acceptable, Riyadh is widening its options.”
In that sense, the Brotherhood designations functioned more as strategic signals than as legal instruments. Saudi Arabia appears to have read them not as a demand for alignment, but as a warning that flexibility, rather than ideological consistency, will shape the next phase of its regional partnerships.
Joe Kawly
Joe Kawly is a veteran global affairs journalist with over two decades of frontline reporting across Washington, D.C. and the Middle East. A CNN Journalism Fellow and Georgetown University graduate, his work focuses on U.S. foreign policy, Arab world politics, and diplomacy. With deep regional insight and narrative clarity, Joe focuses on making complex global dynamics clear, human, and relevant.
