Not an external danger, but one from within Afghanistan, which the Taliban seized control of as the previous government collapsed and the US withdrew in 2021.
He warned of insiders in the government pitted against each other in the Islamic Emirate the Taliban set up to govern the country.
In the leaked clip, the supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada can be heard giving a speech saying that internal disagreements could eventually bring them all down.
As a result of these divisions, the emirate will collapse and end, he warned.
The speech, made to Taliban members at a madrassa in the southern city of Kandahar in January 2025, was more fuel to the fire of rumours that had been circulating for months - rumours of differences at the very top of the Taliban.
It is a split the Taliban leadership has always denied - including when asked directly by the BBC.
But the rumours prompted the BBC's Afghan service to begin a year-long investigation into the highly secretive group - conducting more than 100 interviews with current and former members of the Taliban, as well as local sources, experts and former diplomats.
Now, for the first time, we have been able to map two distinct groups at the top of the Taliban - each presenting competing visions for Afghanistan.
One, entirely loyal to Akhundzada, seeks to drive the country towards a strict Islamic Emirate, isolated from the modern world.
The second group, based in Kabul, advocates for engagement with the outside world and provides education for girls, showing a progressive approach amidst stringent Islamic governance.
This ideological divide came to a head when Akhundzada ordered the internet shut down, severing Afghanistan's connection to the global community. However, members of the Kabul faction defied that order.
This was nothing short of a rebellion, one insider noted, marking a significant moment in the Taliban's history.
As the internet came back online, questions loomed over what this internal strife meant for the Taliban's future.
