Russia’s envoy met up with Libya’s foreign minister Thursday and said afterward that longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi continues to refuse to surrender his power.

Gadhafi’s son revealed to an Italian publication that his father wouldn’t go into exile, but elections under intercontinental supervision could supply a way out. The US quickly dismissed the idea and insisted Gadhafi has to leave.

Last week, Russian presidential envoy Mikhail Margelov traveled to the Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi and stated that Gadhafi has lost his legitimacy. Margelov also said NATO airstrikes aren’t a fix to Libya’s violent stalemate.

NATO has undertaken three months of extreme airstrikes on Gadhafi’s forces and command structure, but has been unsuccessful to unseat the country’s leader of more than 4 decades.

The NATO campaign has lent assistance to Libyan rebels who have captured the majority of the eastern half of the country and are rising up in groups in the west as well.