Five groups representing Kuwait’s Shiite minority have joined forces in a bid to boost their chances in the next parliamentary elections scheduled for 2007, one of the new alliance’s leaders said yesterday. Abdel Wahed al-Khalfan insisted the new National Alliances Coalition would operate within Kuwaiti law, which still outlaws the formation of political parties even though several political groupings act as de facto parties. “We are not a sectarian group … We will raise national issues and those related to Shiites who are a part of this society,” said Khalfan, who is deputy secretary general of the new grouping. Full Story