Kotlin's cinterop .def wont work with relative paths

Question

I have a static library that needs to link to other static libraries.

When I attempt to run ./gradlew common:cinteropSomeLibIos :

I always get IllegalStateException: Could not find 'libabseil.a' binary in neither of [external/lib]

my def file:

headers = SomeHeader.h
language = Objective-C
package = com.mypackage
staticLibraries = libabseil.a libMyLib.a
libraryPaths = external/lib
linkerOpts = -lObjC -all_load

Everything works within AndroidStudio/IntelliJ but when using the command line interface or building with bazel i consistently get the above error.

I tried adding:

val main by compilations.getting {
        kotlinOptions {
            freeCompilerArgs = listOf(
                "-include-binary", "$libLocation/libabseil.a"
            )
        }
    }

as well as setting linkerOpts within the gradle file but that results in:

warning: -linker-option(s)/-linkerOpts option is not supported by cinterop. Please add linker options to .def file or binary compilation instead.

Is there any way to get this working or at least to call the cinterop task in a way that the relative paths in the .def file will work?