Amin al-Hafez أمين الحافظ
Secretary of the Syrian Regional Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party
In office ? – 23 February 1966
Preceded by	Hammud al-Shufi
Succeeded by	Nureddin al-Atassi
President of Syria
In office 27 July 1963 – 23 February 1966
Preceded by	Luai al-Atassi
Succeeded by	Nureddin al-Atassi
Prime Minister of Syria
In office 4 October 1964 – 23 September 1965
Preceded by	Salah al-Din Bitar
Succeeded by	Yusuf Zuaiyin
In office 12 November 1963 – 13 May 1964
Preceded by	Salah al-Din Bitar
Succeeded by	Salah al-Din Bitar
Personal details
Born	1921 Aleppo, Syria
Died	December 17, 2009(2009-12-17) (aged 88) Aleppo, Syria
Political party	Baath Party
Spouse(s)	Zeinab al-Hafiz
Religion	Sunni Islam

Amin al-Hafiz (or Hafez; 1921 – 17 December 2009)^[1] (Arabic: أمين الحافظ‎) was a Syrian politician, general and member of the Ba'th Party.

Career[link]

Early life[link]

Al-Hafiz was born in the city of Aleppo.

His first main political role was in 1958, as part of a Syrian army delegation that visited Gamal Abdul Nasser, the Egyptian president. The two states duly merged into one United Arab Republic in February that year, and Hafez was posted to Cairo. The union crumbled after a Syrian uprising in September 1961, and the resultant secessionist regime banished Hafez to Argentina as Syria's military attaché.^[2]

Rise to power[link]

Hafiz led a coup d'etat against the government of Syria in 1963, in the turbulent years after the break-up of the United Arab Republic (UAR), installing the National Council of the Revolutionary Command (NCRC) at the head of government. The NCRC was dominated by the Syrian branch of the radical, pan-Arab Ba'ath Party, and Hafiz became its President. As President, he instituted socialist reforms and oriented his country towards the Eastern Bloc.

Eli Cohen affair[link]

During his exile in Buenos Aires, Hafez befriended a supposed Lebanese trader named Kamal Amin Thaabet. Thaabet was actually an Egyptian-born Israeli Mossad agent, Eli Cohen. Thaabet/Cohen arrived in Syria in early 1962, a year before Hafez’s return, and soon began passing information about Syrian military plans to Israel.^[2]

As president, Hafez groomed Thaabet/Cohen to be a future defence minister and possibly even his successor. He invited him to functions and have him tours of secret fortifications in the Golan Heights. When Cohen was revealed as a spy in January 1965, Hafez personally interrogated him and ordered the arrest of 500 of his highly-placed friends. Despite international pleas for clemency and his own qualms, Hafez had Cohen publicly hanged in Damascus.^[2]

Downfall[link]

On 23 February 1966, he was overthrown by a radical Ba'athist faction headed by Chief of Staff Salah Jadid.^{[3] [4]} A late warning telegram of the coup d'état was sent from President Gamal Abdel Nasser to Nasim Al Safarjalani (The General Secretary of Presidential Council), on the early morning of the coup d'état. The coup sprung out of factional rivalry between Jadid's "regionalist" (qutri) camp of the Ba'ath Party, which promoted ambitions for a Greater Syria and the more traditionally pan-Arab Hafiz faction, called the "nationalist" (qawmi) faction. Jadid's supporters were also seen as more radically left-wing.^[5] But the coup was also supported and led by officers from Syria's religious minorities, especially the Alawite Muslims and the Druze, whereas Hafiz belonged to the majority Sunni population. Alawis have ruled Syria ever since.

Exile and return[link]

After being wounded in the three hour shoot out that preceded the coup, Hafez was jailed in Damascus's Mazza prison before being sent to Lebanon in June of 1967. A year later he was relocated to Baghdad. In 1971, the courts of Damascus sentenced him to death in absentia, however Saddam Hussein "treated him and his fellow exile, Ba'ath founder Michel Aflaq, like royalty" and the sentence was not carried out.^[6] After the fall of Saddam in the Iraq War of 2003, al-Hafiz was quietly allowed to return to Syria.^[7] He died in Aleppo on December 17, 2009, reports of his age differ, but he was believed to be in his late 80's.^[8][1] He received a state sponsored funeral.^[9]

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b} Syria-news (Arabic)
2. ^ ^{a b c} http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/feb/16/syria
3. ^ Associated Press (16 February 2010). "Amin al-Hafez obituary". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/feb/16/syria. Retrieved 31 May 2012. 
4. ^ Associated Press (August 24, 1993). "Salah Jadid, 63, Leader of Syria Deposed and Imprisoned by Assad". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/24/obituaries/salah-jadid-63-leader-of-syria-deposed-and-imprisoned-by-assad.html. Retrieved 31 May 2012. 
5. ^ "Syria:Coups and Countercoups, 1961-70". http://countrystudies.us/. http://countrystudies.us/syria/15.htm. Retrieved 31 May 2012. 
6. ^ "Amin al-Hafez obituary: Leader of Syria's first Ba'athist regime". The Guardian. 16 February 2010. http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/feb/16/syria. Retrieved 31 May 2012. 
7. ^ Anthony Shadid (May 18, 2005). "Syria Heralds Reforms, But Many Have Doubts". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/17/AR2005051701426_pf.html. Retrieved 31 May 2012. 
8. ^ AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE (December 18, 2009). "Amin el-Hafez, Baathist Leader of Syria in 1960s, Dies". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/19/world/middleeast/19hafez.html. Retrieved 31 May 2012. 
9. ^ "Amin al-Hafez obituary: Leader of Syria's first Ba'athist regime". The Guardian. 16 February 2010. http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/feb/16/syria. Retrieved 31 May 2012. 

v t e Heads of state of Syria since 1922 al-Khalidi • Pierre-Alype* • Shariyari • al-Hasani • al-Abid • H. al-Atassi • B. al-Khatib • al-Azm* • al-Hasani • al-Ulshi* • al-Ayyubi • al-Quwatli • al-Za'im • H. al-Atassi • Selu† • Shishakli† • H. al-Atassi • al-Quwatli • Abdel Nasser • al-Kuzbari* • an-Nuss* • al-Kudsi • L. al-Atassi† • al-Hafiz† • N. al-Atassi • A. al-Khatib • H. al-Assad • Khaddam* • B. al-Assad *denotes acting     †military ruler

v t e Prime Ministers of Syria since 1920 Kingdom of Syria (1920) al-Rikabi H. al-Atassi* al-Durubi al-Ulshi French Mandate of Syria (1920-1946) post established 1932 H. al-Azm al-Hasani A. al-Ayyubi Mardam Bey al-Haffar al-Bukhari post vacant, 1939-41 K. al-Azm al-Hakim H. al-Barazi al-Ulshi al-Jabiri al-Khoury al-Jabiri Syrian Republic (1946-1958) al-Jabiri K. al-Azm* Mardam Bey K. al-Azm al-Za'im M. al-Barazi H. al-Atassi al-Kudsi K. al-Azm al-Kudsi K. al-Azm al-Hakim al-Khatib al-Dawalibi Selu Shishakli al-Asali al-Ghazzi al-Khoury al-Asali al-Ghazzi al-Asali United Arab Republic (1958-1961) Kuhala Sarraj Syrian Arab Republic (1961-) al-Kuzbari al-Nuss al-Dawalibi al-Azma K. al-Azm al-Bitar al-Hafiz al-Bitar al-Hafiz Zuaiyin al-Bitar Zuaiyin N. al-Atassi al-Assad Kleifawi M. al-Ayyubi Kleifawi al-Halabi al-Kasm Zuabi Mero al-Otari Safar * acting