The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 letter word IRAQ
I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
I
R
A
Q
More clues leading to the result IRAQ
- Country's Republican force given audible cue
- Country artist with a measuring of intelligence all round
- What’s regularly written in quatrain about Arab land
- Country artist cracks one question
- State, or regularly misread, question
- Eastern republic taking question on nationalists
- Country wit visited by artist
- Rebel army facing question in country
- Republican organisation put before Queen and Country
- Chair a Question Time covering Middle East trouble spot
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Country" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case country = iraq.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.