People in western client states still starve just with less of their countries resources.

The closest semi-Westernized country to Iran in the same region is Turkey:

* Highly educated population.

* Remnant of an ancient non-Arab Islamic empire.

* Almost precisely the same population count.

And people don't starve in Turkey. Why would they starve in a Western-aligned Iran? The main problem in the richer half of the world is already obesity.