DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Discussions to end a political crisis in Yemen are centered around a plan that would have President Ali Abdullah Saleh step down within 30 days of it being announced and guarantee immunity for him, his family and long-time aides, a Yemeni official says.

Under the so-called 30 plus 60 plan, Saleh would transfer his powers to a deputy and elections would be held 60 days after that, according to Ahmed al-Soufi, secretary general for the Yemeni Institute for the Development of Democracy and a media affairs adviser in the presidential palace.

The threat is that an escalation of the standoff may lead to more violence in the country, or a deadly military divide such as the one in Libya. At the same time, rising social unrest may strengthen al-Qaida as it seeks to use Yemen, the poorest Arab nation, as a base from which to destabilize neighboring Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest exporter of crude.

A weak central government in Yemen risks mirroring the situation in Somalia, across the Gulf of Aden, where there hasn’t been a functioning administration since 1991. Somalia has become a breeding ground for pirates who attack shipping lanes.

There have been no public comments on the plan from Saleh or opposition leaders. Al-Soufi said officials from the Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait, will travel to Yemen next week to facilitate negotiations.

Al-Soufi said one option that supporters of the president have put forward is for Saleh to oversee the process to hold elections. “He would be the father of this democratic process,” he said in a telephone interview from Sanaa, the capital.

Protests in Yemen calling for an end to Saleh’s rule are in their third month.

Under Yemen’s state of emergency, the first since a 1994 civil war between the north and south, public gatherings are banned, the media is subject to restrictions, and the constitution suspended.

The United States has backed Saleh, a key ally in the fight against al-Qaida, with $300 million a year of military and economic aid.