The Middle East is a political and cultural sub-region of Asia, or of Western Asia. The region is defined as the lands between the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf along with the Anatolian, Arabian and Sinai Peninsulas. Sometimes, it is used in a broader sense which can include areas stretching from North Africa in the west to Pakistan in the east and the Caucasus and/or Central Asia in the north. In some instances, the media and various international organizations (such as the United Nations) usually considers the Middle East to be Southwest Asia (including Cyprus and Iran) plus all of Egypt. However, we can subtract Cyprus from the region as it has strong historic and political ties to its European culture and ancestry. Furthermore, Cyprus has it's linguistic roots from Europe and the majority of its population adheres to Christianity both of which do not correspond or relate to middle eastern countries

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