In Trump Talk of Terror Listing for Muslim Brotherhood Alarms Some Arab Allies New York Times’ Declan Walsh reminds us that the Ikhwan remain a political force throughout the Arab World and warns that a move by the Trump administration to label it a terrorist organization could complicate — at the very least — US diplomacy in the region. In Morocco, an Ikhwan affiliated party has won elections, and the group is a leading opposition party in Jordan. The move would, however, endear Trump to Egypt, which is looking to renew ties with the US after what HuffPost contributor Josef Olmert called the Obama Administration’s policy of “appeasement towards the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood.”

Also weighing in from the right is the Daily Telegraph’s defense editor, who has written a guest op-ed for the Wall Street Journal headlined “Cleaning Up Obama’s Mess in the Middle East” that should go over well in Cairo: “Like the Gulf states, Egypt can act as a useful bulwark against Iranian aggression in the Middle East, and can play a central role in defeating Islamic State. Cairo is also heavily involved in trying to prevent neighboring Libya from becoming a haven for Islamist terror cells, and is one of the principal supporters of Gen. Khalifa Haftar, the military hard man who has largely rid Libya’s oil-rich eastern provinces of the menace of Islamic extremism.”