BEIRUT, Lebanon — Less than two weeks after President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen said he would travel to the United States for medical treatment and to calm tensions in his country, officials in his government said he had reversed course and would not travel because of escalating turmoil at home.

Yemeni officials and the state news agency framed Mr. Saleh’s decision as motivated by pleas from members of his party to stay and serve the “national interest.” Labor strikes and new violence in recent weeks had compounded a political crisis that began with a popular uprising against Mr. Saleh’s three decades of rule.

There had been hopes that Mr. Saleh’s departure might ease that crisis, especially among antigovernment protesters who took to the streets demanding an end to Yemen’s entrenched politics of patronage and corruption. When he signed an agreement in November agreeing to leave power, many doubted that Mr. Saleh, who has been president for 33 years, would actually follow through. He had backed out of similar commitments before.

Mr. Saleh handed over some of his duties to his deputy, Abed Rabbo Mansour al-Hadi, but he retained much of his power, complicating Mr. Hadi’s work.