"We tried to do our best (in Iraq), but I believe that there is a great room for strong criticism, because -- undoubtedly -- there was arrogance and stupidity in US (dealing) with Iraq," director of public diplomacy in the bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, Alberto Fernandez, said in an interview with Al-Jazeera news channel late Saturday.
"We should practice some humbleness in the question of Iraq. Undoubtedly -- and (as) the United States did acknowledge -- there have been many mistakes in the (US) foreign policy in Iraq," he said.
US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack reacted from Moscow to Fernandez's statement, saying that "the quote as reported is not accurate."
Fernandez, who spoke in Arabic, added that the United States is ready to talk with "those who care for Iraq" to end the civil strife raging there.
"We are open to dialogue. We all believe at the end of the day ... that the solution to the inferno in Iraq is completely linked to an effective national Iraqi reconciliation," Fernandez said.
"All of us, those who care for Iraq, should sit at a table in one room to debate and establish ... dialogue," he added.
The official said there had been ongoing talks between the United States and all Iraqi factions and political figures "except Al-Qaeda".
"I am sure that there has been contacts between us and people linked with Baathists (the party of ousted president Saddam Hussein) to a certain extent," Fernandez said.
He was responding to a statement read out on Al-Jazeera by someone claiming to be a representative of the Baath party, in which he offered to negotiate a US withdrawal from Iraq based on a US "recognition of the resistance ... as the sole representative of the Iraqi people". Fernandez considered the statement "ridiculous", saying that a dialogue between the US and the Baath party in Iraq is "too far from reality".

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2006