I was with you until you said Iraq was a putative Soviet client. Iraq was a US client, and Saddam Hussein was a secular ruler opposed to Iran, Iran was the Soviet client at the time ever since the Ayattollah took over turning Iran into a religiously controlled oligarchy.
Given US antipathy toward Iran, I agree that the situation with respect to Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war was complex. The US did favor Iraq in that war. But in most other respects Iraq was a soviet client (mostly)...most of its military hardware was Soviet and its foreign policy was generally pro-Soviet.
You've got to prove to me that Iran was ever a Soviet client state, however. Its Islamic revolutionary government was just about as hostile to the godless USSR as it was to satanic America, and it's my understanding Iran unofficially helped supply US-assistance to the anti-Soviet Mujahedeen fighters in Afghanistan.