Who knows, for all we know there may have been a hujja in the Middle East, as some narrations indicate, in fact there may have been multiple.
Like I said, there are narrations which mention a Prophet called Khalid, before our Prophet (saww), and such a narration has been narrated from both Sunni and Shi'a sources, albeit weak, but not impossible, and Shaykh Al-Saduq (rah) considered it true. And likewise, there could have been deputies of Isa (عليه السلام) living in the Middle East aswell, all the way until our Prophet (saww), and some say Abu Talib was a wasi himself. And a wasi's job can simply be as basic as holding on to the truth and protecting it, without making public tabligh, which is what our Imams (عليه السلام) did.
Like I said before, being apparent is not a condition of Prophethood or being a wasi, and I think you are confusing their roles with that of Messengers.
There is no reason to believe there was no Prophets between Isa (عليه السلام) and our Prophet (saww) even in the Middle East, what may be true however is that there was probably no sent Messenger between them, atleast to the Middle East.