Middle Eastern state's first stop (5)
I believe the answer is:
avert
'stop' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'middle eastern state's first' is the wordplay.
'middle' means to look at the middle letters.
'state' becomes 'aver' (I've seen this before**).
'first' says to put letters next to each other.
The middle letter of 'eastern' is 't'.
't' after 'aver' is 'AVERT'.
(Other definitions for avert that I've seen before include "With prominent incisors" , "Ward off (bad event)" , "Deflect away" , "Turn aside or ward off" , "Turn away (ones eyes)" .)