(CNN) President Donald Trump's new US ambassador to Netherlands has walked back his controversial 2015 comments about Muslims and violence in the northern European country.

Three years ago, Peter Hoekstra blamed the"Islamist movement" for "chaos" in the country, claimed there were no-go zones and asserted that cars and politicians were being burned.

"Looking back, I'm dismayed that I said it. There are of course situations in European countries that resemble that, but that has never been the case in the Netherlands. It was an incorrect statement. It was just wrong," Hoekstra said in an interview Friday with the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.

Hoekstra said he "mixed up" countries, though he didn't specify which ones. He had previously denied making the comments, which are on camera, in an interview with a Dutch journalist on Capitol Hill in December, calling it fake news.

Referring to that exchange, Hoekstra told the De Telegraaf: "It was not the case that I was shown at that moment that clip from 2015. I do not know what I was referring to when I was talking about fake news."