United States President, Donald Trump is considering designating the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s oldest Islamist movement as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).

“The president has consulted with his national security team and leaders in the region who share his concern and this designation is working its way through the internal process,” White House Press Secretary, Sarah Sanders said in an email.

Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had asked Trump to make the designation during an April 9 visit to Washington.

Although the White House did not say on what basis it might label the group a terrorist organization, former officials questioned whether the group met the legal standard of engaging in a terrorist activity which threatened US citizens or national security.

The Brotherhood, with an estimated one million members came to power in Egypt’s first modern free election in 2012, a year after long-serving autocrat and US ally, Hosni Mubarak was toppled in a popular uprising.

As Egypt’s army chief in 2013, Sisi is widely believed to have engineered the removal of elected President Mohammed Morsi, a senior Brotherhood figure and subsequently cracked down on its supporters.

Following Morsi’s ouster, the Brotherhood was swiftly banned in Egypt after the government declared it a terrorist organization and jailed thousands of its followers as well as much of its leadership, including Morsi.

The Brotherhood, which was founded 1928 however maintains that it is a non-violent movement and denies any relationship to violent insurgencies waged by al Qaeda and Islamic State militants.