Beirut: A top aide to Iran’s leader met Syrian President Bashar Al Assad on Tuesday, Syrian state TV said, appearing to underline firm Iranian support for Damascus as it faces mounting pressure from insurgents in a four-year-old civil war.

Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a former foreign minister, was the most senior of three Iranian officials to travel to Damascus in less than a week.

Syrian state television reported the meeting between Al Assad and Velayati’s delegation in a news flash without elaborating.

Iran is Syria’s most powerful regional ally and has become more pivotal to Al Assad’s position since the uprising against his family’s four-decade-old rule of Syria broke out in 2011.

Tehran has sent economic aid to prop up the struggling economy and Iranian military advisers are on the ground in addition to Iranian-allied Hezbollah militant forces from neighbouring Lebanon.

On Monday Rustom Qasemi, head of an Iranian agency tasked with developing bilateral economic relations, visited Al Assad and said Tehran wanted to shore up Syria economically.

Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of Iran’s parliamentary national security and foreign policy committee, also reiterated Iranian support for Syria’s government in a visit last week.

Last month Iran’s foreign minister said Western and Arab demands for Al Assad’s removal have fuelled years of unnecessary bloodshed as they have prevented negotiations on a political settlement.

But Al Assad’s position has been shaken over the past two months by the loss of notable areas of northwestern and southern Syria to a patchwork of insurgents including the ultra-radical Daesh and mainstream, Western-backed groups.

Daesh has intensified the pressure by attacking government-held areas in central Syria, closing in on the ancient heritage site of Palmyra.

Meanwhile, Daesh attacked a village in Syria’s southern Druze heartland on Tuesday and clashed with pro-government forces north of the ancient city of Palmyra, said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdul Rahman.

“Daesh killed five fighters from the National Defence Forces and one woman in their attack on the Druze village of Al Haqef in Sweida province,” he said.

Abdul Rahman added that the terrorists seized control of the town for a few hours before NDF fighters — local pro-government militia — forced them back out.

Citing a military source, Syria’s state SANA news agency said the army and NDF “foiled an infiltration attempt by terrorists from Daesh on the villages of Al Qasr and Al Haqef.”

According to the Britain-based Observatory, Daesh controls a series of villages in the northeast of Sweida province, the rest of which remains in government hands, and has tried to seize Khalkhalah military airport.

“Daesh is advancing on villages in Sweida because they are at a crossroads between Damascus and the roads east to the Syrian desert,” Abdul Rahman said.

Further north, fighting between Daesh terrorists and government forces continued outside Palmyra on Tuesday morning.

“There are clashes at the western entrance of Palmyra this morning, which lies on the road that leads to Homs city,” provincial governor Talal Barazi said.

On Sunday, regime forces pushed Daesh out of northern neighbourhoods of Palmyra, which it had held for less than 24 hours.

Barazi said he visited Palmyra on Monday, “going through 60 per cent of the city on foot,” visiting the vegetable market and museum.

He said at least 40 rockets had struck Palmyra on Sunday, but that government forces maintained control over key points, including the Islamic citadel overlooking the city.