I have lived in America my entire life and the middleeast has never included these nations when used properly it defines the regions of Persia south of the black sea and unconquered by romans or the byzantines and has always had refered to Iran pakistan and afghanistan occasionally including iraq and saudi arabia and syria etc although these are properly defined as the neareast  the middle east is surrounded by the near east anatolia the black sea states the southern steppes and the far east india  The definition listed here is more what we americans refer to as the arab states which stretch from morocco to pakistan I have heard uninformed people using the term middle east to refer to the arab states in general but why should idiots pick the definition  Its not as though they make up the majority anyhow