Middle East and Sicily somehow give rise to unfriendly grin (3,5)

'somehow give rise to unfriendly grin' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot tell whether it can be defined by this definition.

'middle east and sicily' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'middle' could be 'm' (abbreviation for middle) and 'm' is present in the answer.
'east' could be 'e' (abbreviation) and 'e' is present in the answer.
an anagram of 'sicily' is 'icysil' which is present in the left over letters.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?