Hakan Fidan, Turkey's former intelligence chief turned foreign minister, is both a onetime covert partner to Israel against Iranian terror plots and the man analysts say may pose the greatest threat to Erdogan's succession plans.

Hakan Fidan, the man who ran Turkish intelligence with an iron grip for 13 years and now serves as foreign minister, presents Israeli security officials with a genuine strategic puzzle, a former secret partner in critical operations who is also a hardened strategist with close ties to the Iranian axis, according to a profile published by Kikar HaShabbat.

While Turkish President Erdogan continues to escalate his rhetoric against Israel and the West, the outlet reports that a fierce succession struggle is quietly unfolding beneath the surface, one that could shape the future of the NATO member state. At the center of that drama is Fidan, who Kikar HaShabbat describes as holding the black box of the Turkish regime.