WASHINGTON, JUL 21: US President Donald Trump praised Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Tuesday as he welcomed him to the White House, making Aoun Lebanon’s first head of state to visit since 2009.

“He’s handsome also,” Trump quipped to reporters during comments from the Oval Office. “And I think he could become one of the most important leaders in the Middle East, actually,” the US president said.

Trump went to say that Lebanon had been “very mistreated” for a long period of time. “We’re going to help it a lot.”

Trump highlight Iran-backed Hezbollah as a “problem,” adding that he would speak with Aoun about some “very concrete plans already in store” for dealing with the group.

On Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, which has been a key ask from the Lebanese president, Trump said Israeli forces were “in the process of doing that.”

For his part, Aoun said it was an honor to meet a “great president like yourself,” before Trump joked: “He knows how to get me… now he can have anything.”

Aoun later said he needed political support from Trump and the backing of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF). “All we’re asking is, keep supporting the LAF,” he said in response to a question.