Lebanon's newly elected president, Joseph Aoun, said Thursday that "a new phase" has started for the war-ravaged country and pledged to rebuild the state, adopt a policy of "positive neutrality" and fight corruption.

Foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan became the most senior Saudi Arabian official to visit Beirut in more than a decade on Thursday, marking the kingdom’s attempt to rebuild relations with Lebanon after the country elected a new president.

Saudi Arabia's top diplomat, on his country's first high-level visit to Beirut after years of strained ties, said Thursday that he believed crisis-hit Lebanon's new leaders could spearhead long-sought reforms.

Riyadh was a major investor in Lebanon but ties between the two countries have soured for roughly the past decade over the growing influence of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group. Aoun’s election to the