Egypt is geographically in Africa. I wouldn't consider it middle east, even if Cairo (clearly west of the Suez) is politically considered a part of that. One could make an argument that SSH or the Sinai as a whole is in the middle east as it's the only part of Egypt that belongs to Asia but I doubt that would work either.

Also, consider this: Where do you determine what part of Egypt is middle east and what is Africa? If CAI is middle east, is ASW Africa? Because that would turn a CAI-ASW 433 mile route into a 70K economy round trip instead of a 35K award.