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Gen. 'Amin Hafiz' (or 'Hafez'; born 1911) (Arabic: أمين الحافظ) was a Syrian politician, military officer and a member of the Ba'th Party.
Hafiz led a coup d'État 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'th Party, and Hafiz became its President. As President, he instituted socialist reforms and oriented his country towards the Eastern Bloc.
On February 23, 1966, he was overthrown by a radical Ba'thist faction headed by Chief of Staff Salah Jadid. The coup sprung out of factional rivalry between Jadid's "regionalist" (''qutri'') camp of the Ba'th Party, which promoted ambitions for a Greater Syria and the more traditionally pan-Arab Hafiz faction, called the "nationalist" (''qawmi'') faction.[1] Jadid's supporters were also seen as more radically left-wing. 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.
After the coup, Hafiz lived in exile until 2005, when he was quietly permitted to return to Syria.[2]