“I would love to be able to be the one that made peace with Israel and the Palestinians,” President-elect Donald Trump said in an interview with The New York Times, adding that his son-in-law Jared Kushner, ‘’would be very good at it” and that “he knows the region.”

“A lot of people tell me, really great people tell me, that it’s impossible — you can’t do it,” Mr. Trump added. “I disagree. I think you can make peace.”

“I have reason to believe I can do it,” he added.

Trump rejected the idea that he was bound by federal antinepotism laws from installing his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in a White House job. But he said he would want to avoid the appearance of a conflict and might instead seek to make Kushner a special envoy charged with brokering peace in the Middle East.

He said that Jared Kushner, who is an observant Jew, “could be very helpful” in reconciling the longstanding dispute between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

In a statement given to Israeli daily Israel Hayom after his victory over Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, Trump said, “I believe that my administration can play a significant role in helping the parties to achieve a just, lasting peace — which must be negotiated between the parties themselves, and not imposed on them by others. Israel and the Jewish people deserve no less.”