Observers see the move as an attempt to quell more than a week of widening demonstrations calling for jobs and political reforms that in the latest burst spread to a key oil region.

Gen. Sultan bin Mohammed Al-Naamani was appointed minister of the palace office, which controls the country’s security, and Khalid bin Hilal Al-Busaidy becomes the new minister of the diwan of the royal court, Oman’s state news agency said citing royal decrees.

The sultan also replaced another minister who deals with internal matters within the ruling structure. The decree replaced Gen. Ali bin Majid and Ali bin Hamoud.

About 200 protesters gathered in the capital Muscat on Saturday at the headquarters of the Shoura Council, a quasi-parliamentary advisory body, for a seventh consecutive day, while some 150 government supporters waved Omani flags from their cars.

There were smaller protests in Salalah, the eastern coastal town of Sur where Oman’s liquefied natural gas export facilities are based, and Sohar where medical sources said six people were killed in clashes with security forces on Sunday. Oman’s health minister, however, said only one person died. 

“It is clear our demands are being listened to and this is part of the reforms of clearing old ministers and bring in new blood,” Shaikh Soud Al-Amri, a protester in Muscat, said referring to the new ministerial appointments.

Qaboos tried to ease tensions on Sunday by promising 50,000 new jobs, unemployment benefits of $390 a month and to study widening the power of the Shoura Council. Last week, the sultan replaced six other ministers. But the measures failed to halt sit-ins in the capital, Muscat, and the northern industrial city of Sohar, where the unrest began.

In Haima, a key oil region about 500 km southwest of the capital, oil workers staged a work stoppage to demand more state investments in the area, government officials said. The workers met with a senior envoy from the Oil Ministry.

Unrest in the normally tranquil oil-producing state, ruled by Qaboos for four decades, follows a wave of pro-democracy protests across the Arab world.

Oman’s unrest remains small compared with Bahrain, but it is closely watched because of the country’s strategic role as coguardian of the Strait of Hormouz. Oman and Iran share authority over the crucial waterway at the mouth of the Gulf, which is the route for 40 percent of the world’s oil tanker traffic.