The official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, did not provide further details or say whether the Iran missile forces were taking aim at any specific targets.

“They’re clearly at a heightened state of alert. Is that heightened state of alert to be better prepared defensively or to be better prepared offensively? That can’t be determined at this point,” the official said. “But we’re watching it closely.”

Following the assassination of Iran’s IRGC Quds Force Commander Lt. Gen. Qasem Soleimani and Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMU) Chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis along with 8 others, in a US terrorist assault in Baghdad International Airport in Iraq on Friday, Iran vowed a harsh vengeance “in due time and right place” awaits criminals behind Soleimani’s assassination.

The bodies of the martyred commander and his Iranian companions were first transferred to the Iranian cities of Ahvaz and Mashhad, where massive funeral processions were held on Sunday. The cortege arrived in Tehran Monday morning, and will be heading to the holy city of Qom and finally to his hometown Kerman in the southeast for burial on Tuesday.

Both Soleimani and Muhandis were popular figureheads putting a stop to the rise of ISIL terrorism which once came as close as 30 km to Baghdad, while the US withdrew troops from Iraq and did nothing to stop the terrorists’ advances.

Ambassadors from the three European nations, the E3, urged UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in an accusation letter circulated Wednesday against Iran, to inform the council in his next report that Iran’s ballistic missile program is “inconsistent” with the call in a council resolution endorsing the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, Associated Press reported.

The letter says “France, Germany and the United Kingdom assert once again our firm conclusion that Iran’s development of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles and related technologies is inconsistent” with the missile provision in the council resolution.

This is while Iran has repeatedly announced that none of its ballistic missiles are designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, saying that paragraph 3 of annex B to Resolution 2231 (which endorses a nuclear deal signed between Iran and major world powers) does not limit, in any way, Iran’s activities regarding the conventional ballistic missiles.

The Islamic Republic has underlined that its missile program is of a defensive and deterrent nature, and expressions of unnecessary concerns will not affect the country’s policy in preserving and developing its missile defense.