[1][2][3][4][5] Politically independent from the Nasserists and their Ba'athist rivals, Hariri served as the army's chief of staff following the coup and was briefly defense minister until being dismissed during a wide-scale purge of non-Ba'athists from the military.

[11] For two years Hariri actively opposed the secessionist government and worked to restore the union with Egypt, gaining the support of Nasserist and politically independent Arab nationalist officers in the army.

Sometime in the middle of 1962, the Military Committee of the Ba'ath Party, which ostensibly favored the restoration of the UAR, offered Hariri the position of army chief of staff if he gave the Ba'athists his support in overthrowing Qudsi's government.

Hariri's troops installed barricades blocking strategic roads in the city, and besieged several government buildings, including the main post office.

By the morning of 8 March, the coup was completed with virtually no blood spilled and the chief unionist officers gathered at army headquarters in Damascus to celebrate its quick success.

"[2] Hariri was promoted to Major-General,[9] became a member of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) that governed the country and, as planned, was appointed the army's chief of staff.

Under the committee's influence, the RCC appointed officer Lu'ay al-Atassi as president and Ba'athist co-founder Salah al-Din Bitar as prime minister.

[15] Hariri had been sent to Algeria on 19 June with a high-ranking delegation, including Bitar, Aflaq and Education Minister Sami Droubi,[16] just prior to the purge and was unable to personally intervene.