BAGHDAD, Iraq: The leader of Iraq's largest political party and son of late Grand Marjay (top religious authority) of Shiia World Sayyed Mohsin At-Tabatabai Al-Hakim, Sayyed Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, on Tuesday expressed confidence that a civil war will not break out in his country despite an increase in violence.

In an interview, Al-Hakim, who heads both the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and the governing United Iraqi Alliance, also told The Associated Press that he favored the death penalty as a means of reducing the violence — which has left nearly 700 innocent Iraqis dead since the new government was announced on April 28.

Al-Hakim said terrorists have been trying to start a civil war in the country since the fall of Saddam's regime in April 2003.

“The awareness of the Iraqi people and the links between them will prevent such a war, God willing,” he said in his Baghdad home.

He said civil war was “not a new aim. It is a plan that was declared during the first months after the fall of Saddam's regime, and Az-Zarqawi said it in his known letter.”

One way out of the crisis, according to al-Hakim, was that Sunnis “should have a real participation and their points of view should be taken seriously."