Bahrain stepped up a crackdown on opposition activists on Thursday by seeking the dissolution of its biggest political party for anti-constitutional activities.
Officials said that al-Wefaq, which represents the Shia Muslim majority of the Sunni-run kingdom and another party, Islamic Action, were guilty of incitement.
Bahrain imposed emergency rule last month after it sought military assistance from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to crush protests. Opposition activists had staged violent demonstrations which called for the overthrow for the Khalifa dynasty.
The arrival of Saudi troops brought talks between royal family modernisers and Wefaq to an abrupt halt.
Wefaq won the 18 seats it contested for the 40-member parliament last year.
But the strength of the uprising — hundreds of thousands occupied the centre of Manama – unnerved the Gulf states, who viewed the rebellion as a front for Iranian interests.
Hundreds of Shia have been arrested in Bahrain in the last month and many more have been dismissed from state companies.
Bahrain appears set to abandon a period of democratisation. King Hamad, who took power in 1999, declared the tribal government a constitutional monarchy in 2002 in order to promote constitutional reforms.
“It’s reached a stage where they say there are no more moderates, that the entire opposition consists of extremists. This is the wrong message,” said Mattar Ibrahim Mattar, an ex-MP for Wefaq.
But traditionalists in the 30,000-strong Khalifa clan have resisted meaningful change and the consequences of Saudi Arabia’s intervention is likely to be a return to rule by decree.
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