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LONDON Time is running out to forge an agreement on Irans nuclear program, which, though still a work in progress, is causing angst from Congress to the Knesset to many a majlis in the Middle East.

Secretary of State John F. Kerry flew to Paris on Saturday for consultations with the foreign ministers of France, Britain and Germany. Although the United States is taking the lead in negotiations, the three countries, plus China and Russia, are also involved in trying to frame a deal to constrict Irans nuclear ability, impose strict monitoring and possibly ease sanctions that began 10 years ago.

The reason that talks have come down to now-or-never is a self-imposed deadline. After limping along for most of a decade, talks picked up in earnest in 2013 after Hassan Rouhani was elected president of Iran on a promise of relief from sanctions. After two extensions in talks, negotiators are sprinting to reach a general understanding on basic principles by the end of March, leaving the complicated technical details to be worked out in the following three months.

Many in Congress have set the deadline at March24, four months to the day after a temporary agreement was extended to June30 and the United States said it wanted a general framework in place within four months. But the State Department is taking the deadline less literally, saying it is aiming for March31.

Either way, the calendar pages are flipping past rapidly, leaving time for no more than two more rounds of talks.

[Read:Kerry seeks to assure Arab states over possible Iran nuclear deal]

Kerry and his Iranian counterpart, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, met over three days in Geneva this week even as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lobbied against the deal in a speech to a joint meeting of Congress.

Kerry and Zarifs next meeting is scheduled for March15, probably in Geneva. But the Iranian new year, Nowruz, begins March22, a three-day national holiday when Kerry also has other obligations.

So unless they strike an agreement in Geneva, the talks will go down to the wire in a flurry of negotiations in the last days of the month. Then it will be up to President Obama to decide how to proceed.

If they succeed, a deal will be one of Obama and Kerrys lasting legacies. Zarif and Kerry both emerge from every round of talks saying that progress has been made but that significant gaps remain. Kerry says it is now up to Tehran to decide whether it is willing to make concessions, facing down opposition from hard-liners who oppose negotiations with their arch enemy, the United States.

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Iran nuclear talks going down to the wire