Realist curtailed reforms in Middle East country (6)
I believe the answer is:
israel
'middle east country' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'realist curtailed reforms' is the wordplay.
'curtailed' means to remove the last letter.
'reforms' indicates anagramming the letters.
'realist' with its last letter taken away is 'realis'.
'realis' anagrammed gives 'ISRAEL'.
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for israel that I've seen before include "Country of E. Med" , "Sire, Al is in the Middle East" , "Sir, ale is available in the country" , "Mediterranean republic" , "Lear is to be found in this state" .)