The United States should not place a "public red line" for Iran's nuclear program, Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger told the Washington Post on Friday.

The former statesman said that the US should determine such a line without publically announcing it, and without allowing Tehran to cross it.

Kissinger also said that any decision made in regard to Iran and its nuclear program should be made by the US alone and Israel should have no share in that.

Washington, he noted, cannot "subcontract" such a decision to Israel. "We cannot subcontract the right to go to war. That is an American decision," he stressed.

"Should we make a public announcement (on red lines) that can be used by Israel as a justification for its going to war? That we cannot do."

The United States, he continued, "Should draw a private red line" that "can be "publicly decided in terms of tactical necessities."

The former secretary of state noted that the world would rather see a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear issue.

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