Stock markets in the Gulf, except Saudi Arabia, opened up on Sunday after a volatile week trailing the behavior of global markets hit by uncertainty over European and U.S. economic woes.

The Dubai Financial Market index continued its rise on Sunday after returning to the green in the latter part of last week.

Two Omani women were detained for driving in Saudi Arabia, where women are not allowed to take to the wheel, Saudi media reported on Sunday.

Police detained the two women drivers traveling with their families on the road connecting the capital Riyadh to the western city of Taef.

Yemen's oil-rich Gulf neighbors are engaged in "intensive consultations" to resolve the long-running political crisis in Sanaa, Oman's foreign minister Yussef bin Alawi bin Abdullah said.

The six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) "continue to conduct intensive consultations with parties in Yemen to overcome the crisis," Abdullah told Agence France Presse late on Tuesday.

Gulf Arab foreign ministers were to meet Sunday in the Saudi capital to discuss Iranian interference after Arab world unrest spilled over into some of the region's Western-backed monarchies.

Abdul Latif al-Zayani, the Gulf Cooperation Council's new secretary general, condemned "Iran's meddling in the internal affairs of GCC countries" on the eve of the meeting, saying it "threatened security and stability in the region".

The six Gulf Arab states vowed on Thursday to deal "decisively" with threats to any member's security and set up a $20 billion development fund for Bahrain and Oman which were hit with protests.

"The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) believes that any threat to the security of any member state harms the security of all states and will be dealt with decisively and immediately, without hesitation," they said in a statement read out at the end of a meeting in Riyadh.

Oman's Sultan Qaboos has replaced two ministers, days after protests erupted demanding an end to corruption in the normally placid Gulf state, official media reported on Saturday.

The sultan has appointed Khaled bin Hilal bin Saud al-Busaidi as a minister of the royal court, replacing Sayed Ali bin Hmud al-Busaidi, the state ONA news agency said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that Iran is communicating with Hizbullah in a bid to shape events in the Arab world.

It was the first time that Clinton detailed alleged efforts by Tehran to meddle in the three-month wave of Arab revolts that has toppled presidents in Tunisia and Egypt, convulsed Libya and shaken Yemen, Bahrain and Oman.

Tanks dispersed demonstrators blocking the port in the industrial city of Sohar and the coast road to Muscat on Tuesday as protests were also reported elsewhere in Oman, Agence France Presse journalists and witnesses said.

The operation went peacefully and Omani forces drove away protesters who had been keeping vigil at the Earth Roundabout, a landmark intersection where at least one protester was killed in clashes on Sunday.

Fresh clashes erupted between Omani police and protesters on Monday, a day after police killed at least one as the turmoil rocking the Arab world reached the normally calm Gulf sultanate.

Hundreds of demonstrators stormed a police station in the key industrial area of Sohar, northwest of the capital Muscat, and police responded by firing tear gas.

Omani police shot dead two demonstrators on Sunday as the deadly wave of protests rocking the Arab world spread to the normally placid pro-Western sultanate, a security official said.

The protests in Sohar, more than 200 kilometers northwest of Muscat, prompted Sultan Qaboos to introduce swift appeasing measures, including the provision of jobs for 50,000 citizens and unemployment benefits.