WASHINGTON, May 22: The United States said on Thursday it has approved the sale of Israel’s Phalcon airborne early warning system to India.

The approval follows the lowering of tensions in South Asia, a State Department official said here on Thursday.

“The United States has informed Israel and India that we have no objection to the Israeli transfer of the Phalcon airborne early warning system to India,” the official said.

He said the America had been discussing this potential sale with Israel for years and “in the past had expressed concern that heightened tensions between India and Pakistan made a transfer inadvisable”.

“Recent developments in the region have eased those concerns,” said the official referring to moves by both nuclear-armed neighbours to lower tensions.

Asked if the US approval for the Israeli arms sale to India was linked to the South Asian developments, the official said: “No, we do not want to make any particular linkage but lowering of tensions in the region is a good thing.”

Commenting on media reports that US might have agreed to allow India access to this high-tech surveillance weapon in return for its willingness to improve ties with Pakistan, the official said: “No. There’s no quid pro quo.”

He said he was not aware if Pakistan was intimated that US was going to allow Israel to sell the Phalcon to India.

“I have not heard of any protest,” said the official when asked if Pakistan had protested the sale.

But Pakistan’s deputy chief of mission in Washington, Mohammad Sadiq, told Dawn: “If this news is correct, it will further increase the conventional arms disparity in South Asia.

“Such a situation will not be helpful for confidence-building measures and peace and security in South Asia,” he added.

The Phalcon airborne radar systems, one of the most sophisticated in the world, is worth $1 billion and will greatly enhance India’s air surveillance capabilities.

It’s an Israeli-developed, long-range early warning and control system carried in a Russian Ilyushin-76 cargo plane.