Pro-government Armenian newspapers expressed outrage on 19 January over Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Elizabeth Jones\'s inclusion of the leadership of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic in a list of what she termed \"criminal secessionist regimes\" on the territory of the former USSR. At a 13 January news conference with Russian journalists, Jones argued that the removal of such regimes in Transdniester, Georgia\'s unrecognized republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and Nagorno-Karabakh is in Russia\'s interests. Vahan Hovannisian, who is a leading member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnakstsutiun, a junior partner in the three-party ruling coalition, said he does not believes Jones\'s statement accurately reflects Washington\'s policy vis-a-vis Nagorno-Karabakah. Aram Sarkisian of the opposition Democratic Party of Armenia told journalists on 19 January that Jones\'s statement has seriously damaged Armenia\'s negotiating position in the ongoing search for a solution to the Karabakh conflict. (RFE/RL)