SANAA — Most Yemeni factions have agreed to set up an interim presidential council to manage the country for up to one year, negotiators said on Thursday, in a step to ease a power struggle that forced the president to step down two weeks ago.

The dominant Houthi movement had set a Wednesday deadline for political factions to agree to a way out of the crisis that led to the resignation of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi on Jan. 22. Otherwise, the group said, it would impose its own solution.

Delegates said that nine parties and groups, including a faction from the southern separatist Herak, agreed during negotiations in Sanaa on a five-member presidential council that would be headed by Ali Nasser Mohammed, a former president of South Yemen before the 1990 merger with North Yemen.

A source close to Mohammed confirmed consultations were under way with the ex-president but said they have yet to be finalized.

The Sunni Islamist Islah party was still considering the agreement, but the Yemen Socialist Party, which ruled the former South Yemen, said on Thursday it had approved the council.

The Houthis, Shi’a Muslims backed by Iran, had said on Wednesday night that they had put off acting alone as parties appeared close to a consensus on a way out of the stand-off.

But even as a solution seemed within reach, Yemen’s deep divisions were as apparent as ever.