OMAN SULTAN SACKS MINISTERS, DISSOLVES ECONOMY MINISTRY

Oman’s ruler dissolved the office overseeing economic affairs on March 7 in a concession to a key demand of protesters calling for more jobs and political openness. Sultan Qaboos also fired several ministers as part of the third high-level reshuffle in the past 10 days attempting to calm the protests. Foreign ministers from six Gulf nations met in Abu Dhabi with the region’s political upheavals atop the agenda, including a major uprising against Bahrain’s monarchy and calls for pro-reform demonstrations this week in Kuwait. The Gulf’s rulers have responded to the unrest with a blitz of spending on social programmes and pledges of tens of thousands of new jobs, but that hasn’t calmed the situation. Oman’s sultan directly addressed one of the main demands of protesters by closing the Ministry of National economy, which was widely blamed by demonstrators for failing to provide more opportunities for the nation’s young population. The ministry will be replaced by a committee picked by the government. Demonstrators have called for more jobs and greater accountability from the government appointed by the sultan, who has ruled for 40 years. One person was killed in clashes with security forces since the protest rallies began late last month.